2024-06-12 –, Room F - Garden Tent
The "Twin Transition" paradigm pushed forward by institutions part of the European Union and the United Nations considers digitization and environmental sustainability to be two mutually reinforcing processes. The idea is that technologies can be made greener; and that greener technologies can accelerate the arrival of a more sustainable society. However, climate and environmental justice movements around the world argue that the techno-solutionism of this transition strategy props up discourses of climate delay and distraction; avoids the tackling of structural issues, and intensifies unjust dynamics of “green extractivism”, colonialism, and Eurocentrism.
In this session, we unpack the assumptions that the “twin transition” is based on. Our goal is to build a critical understanding of how digital rights advocates and practitioners coming from a background in digital technologies can productively engage on this nexus of issues.
Through collaborative brainstorming we explore: who benefits from the Twin Transition paradigm and who pays the price? Amongst the central topics we cover, we will look at how, at EU level, the push for so-called “green” tech is leading to an ever-greater demand for critical minerals, leading to concerns around the “green extractivism” of mining and an expressed need to “secure” technological supply chains. How is the need for critical minerals feeding into narratives of securitization, and what implications does that have for human rights, digital rights, and social justice?
Finally, we will spend time visioning how to work towards a more just approach to technologies in the context of climate and environmental crises, looking at examples of how social movements and policy makers around the world are already fighting for a truly just transition. Looking at the long-standing work of the global climate justice movement to push back against “false climate solutions” such as solar geoengineering and carbon offsets, we will ask how this work can inform advocacy around the role of digital technologies in mitigating climate and environmental crises.
TBD
Andreea is a Romanian digital rights campaigner. She is a Green Web Fellow, looking at the "twin transition" narrative. In parallel, she leads the Communications and Campaigns team at Europe’s largest network of digital rights organisations – EDRi. She is particularly interested in the way social values are embedded in narratives we collectively face in our work.