November 2022

Welcome to the Network for the Digital Economy and the Environment’s November 2022 newsletter. Here are the highlights from the last month:
 

An environmentalist’s guide to quantum computing | European Commission Action Plan | Transforming consumption-production systems towards just and sustainable futures | Digitalization for sustainable infrastructure

News

“An Environmentalist’s Guide to Quantum Computing” — Report 
 

The Network for the Digital Economy and the Environment’s own Dave Rejeski recently gave a talk about his paper entitled, “An Environmentalist’s Guide to Quantum Computing.” In this paper, Rejeski seeks to separate fact from fiction with respect to quantum computing’s potential for addressing society’s many environmental challenges. You can find more about his paper here. We also encourage you to watch his recorded talk.

The European Commission’s Action Plan for Digitalizing the Energy System

On October 18, 2022, the European Commission issued a press release announcing its new report, “Digitalising the energy system — EU action plan.” The Action Plan proposes a set of actions that need to be undertaken to boost digital energy services while ensuring an energy-efficient ICT sector. This involves (1) helping consumers increase control over their energy use, (2) controlling the energy consumption of the ICT sector, and (3) strengthening the cybersecurity of energy networks. The plan “outlines ways to decouple the energy footprint of the ICT sector from the exponential growth of data.” Read the full press release and link to the report in your language. 

“Transforming Consumption-Production Systems Towards Just and Sustainable Futures” — A Call for Participation
 

The Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI), the European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP) and Wageningen University & Research (WUR), will be hosting the conference, "Transforming consumption-production systems towards just and sustainable futures," from July 5-8, 2023 in Wageningen, The Netherlands. There is a current Call for Participation for the panel discussion, “Digital Platforms of Sustainable Food Consumption-Production.” The organizers write: “This panel will focus on how platformization will drive changes to the food system. The emergence of digital platforms affords new ways of achieving sustainability outcomes in food systems through the formation of new collectivities, the marketization of new domains and activities, and the creation of digital environments that afford new types of engagement with food and with other actors in the food system. The panel focusses on how consumers and producers actively make use of these platforms, and the implications of platformization for achieving just sustainability transitions in food systems.” Learn more. Deadline: November 21, 2022.

“Digitalization for Sustainable Infrastructure: The Road Ahead” — A report of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI)
 

In October, the ISPI’s Centre on Infrastructure, in partnership with McKinsey & Company, released a report entitled, “Digitalization for Sustainable Infrastructure: The Road Ahead.” The report is broken into three parts: trends, sectors, and countries. In “Trends,” the authors discuss the trends of digitalization and sustainability, the role of technology and data in increasing infrastructure efficiency, and the significance of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence to infrastructure. In “Sectors,” they explore the role of technology and digitalization in smart roads, smart mobility, smart grids, and sustainable infrastructure more broadly, among other topics. Finally, in “Countries,” the authors look at how countries in Europe and Africa, China, Japan, and the U.S. are approaching the intersecting digital and sustainability transitions. Read the full report.

Opportunities
 

Climate Change AI has announced the opening of their 2023 Innovation Grants program. This program is supported by DeepMind and Quadrature Climate Foundation. Climate Change AI will fund year-long research projects at the intersection of climate change and machine learning. The maximum amount per grant is $150,000. The submission deadline is March 1, 2023. Learn more about this opportunity.

Researcher Highlight

Sudeep Pasricha

Sudeep Pasricha is a Walter Scott Jr. College of Engineering Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Department of Computer Science, and the Department of Systems Engineering at Colorado State University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine, and has several years of experience working in the computing and semiconductor industry. As Director of the Embedded, High Performance, and Intelligent Computing (EPIC) Laboratory, his current research focuses on the design of innovative software algorithms, hardware architectures, and hardware-software co-design techniques, with an emphasis on energy-efficient, fault-tolerant, real-time, and secure computing. Read more.  

This month we also have a funder highlight. We’d like to introduce Shayna Robinson from the Internet Society Foundation!

 Shayna Robinson

Shayna Robinson is the new Programs Director for the Internet Society Foundation (ISF), leading all of its grant-making programs. One grant-making program — the Research Program — promotes novel research that generates solutions to Internet-related challenges and supports global research collaborations that fall under four thematic areas of focus. These areas of focus include (1) Greening the Internet, (2) The Internet Economy, (3) A Trustworthy Internet, and (4) Decolonizing the Internet. Read more.

Upcoming Events

What is the environmental footprint of artificial intelligence?, hosted by the OECD AI Expert Group (November 15, 2022)

2022 HAI Fall Conference on AI in the Loop: Humans in Charge, hosted by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) (November 15, 2022)

Building the New Economy: Data as Capital, hosted by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab (November 17, 2022)

Internet Architecture Board workshop on “Environmental Impact of Internet Applications and Systems” 2022, hosted by the Internet Architecture Board (December 5, 2022)
 

“Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning” at the Conference on Neural Information Process Systems 2022, hosted by Climate Change AI (December 9, 2022)

For all events, see https://www.networkdee.org/upcoming-events

New Jobs!

Senior Analyst, Data & Technology Policy - Environmental Policy Innovation Center (Deadline: Unknown)
 

Environmental Justice Technology Fellow - Environmental Policy Innovation Center (Deadline: Unknown)
 

Research Associate - Machine Learning for Energy Markets, Hertie School (Deadline: December 2nd, 2022) 

Deputy Director - The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) (Deadline: Unknown)

Postdoctoral Researcher - Energy Markets, Hertie School (Deadline: November 27, 2022)

Research Scientist - ML for Climate Modeling, The Allen Institute for AI (Deadline: November 15th, 2022)
 

Climate Change Analyst - Governance & Accountability Institute (Deadline: Unknown) 

Director - Climate Consulting, Governance & Accountability Institute (Deadline: Unknown) 

Researcher - Computational Investigation of Carbon Capture Materials, National Institute of Standards and Technology (Deadline: unknown) 

Faculty Position- Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Schwarzman College of Computing (SCC), MIT (Deadline: December 1st)

Recent Media We've Been Following

“Top Bitcoin Miners Pressed by U.S. Lawmakers to Detail Climate Impact, Power Consumption,” Bloomberg, January 27th, 2022
 

“Texas Crypto Miners Face Inquiry From Warren Over Power Use,” Bloomberg, October 12th, 2022 

“Will Crypto Cowboys Crash the Texas Power Grid?,” Bloomberg, October 13th, 2022
 

“EU Puts Bitcoin in Crosshairs With Crypto Energy Labeling Plan,” Bloomberg, October 18th, 2022 

“Record hash rates may see Big Oil become a major BTC mining player,” Cointelegraph, November 2nd, 2022 

“Scientists Increasingly Can’t Explain How AI Works,” Vice News, November 1st, 2022 

“Data centers, backbone of the digital economy, face water scarcity and climate risk,” NPR, August 30th, 2022

“Trade in 25 technologies can help climate action. What's needed to make it happen?,” World Economic Forum, September 20th, 2022 

Publications We've Been Reading

Creutzig, F., Acemoglu, D., Bai, X., Edwards, P.N., Hintz, M.J., Kaack, L.H., Kilkis, S., Kunkel, S., Luers, A., Milojevic-Dupont, N., Rejeski, D., Renn, J., Rolnick, D., Rosol, C., Russ, D., Turnbull, T., Verdolini, E., Wagner, F., Wilson, C., Zekar, A., & Zumwald, M. (2022). Digitalization and the Anthropocene. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 47: 479-509. Available at: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-environ-120920-100056

Howson, P., & de Vries, A. (2022). Preying on the poor? Opportunities and challenges for tackling the social and environmental threats of cryptocurrencies for vulnerable and low-income communities. Energy Research & Social Science 84, 102394. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102394 

Jones, B.A., Goodkind, A.L., & Berrens, R.P. Economic estimation of Bitcoin mining’s climate damages demonstrates closer resemblance to digital crude than digital gold. Sci Rep 12, 14512 (2022). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18686-8

Nost, E., & Colven, E. (2022). Earth for AI: A political ecology of data-driven climate initiatives. Geoforum 130: 23-34. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.01.016

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The nDEE Bibliography

The nDEE has been curating a bibliography of references relating to the digital economy and the environment. If you have references you feel should be included in our bibliography, please reach out and let us know! 

Before you go!

The mission of the nDEE is to catalyze research around the environmental and energy impacts of the digital economy. If you have any news, events, or opportunities that you’d like us to share out through the newsletter please contact us at info@networkdee.org. We also welcome feedback on our newsletter, website, or anything else. We hope to hear from you!