Topic: Exploring digitalisation’s footprint

 
Summary:

Digitalisation is often described as an enabler of sustainability transitions, though concerns about rebound effects remain. To truly support these transitions, however, it must not only foster sustainability elsewhere but also embody it within its own development. This talk explores the future footprint of digital infrastructures, focusing on data centres at the global scale. On the energy side, it projects demand, associated greenhouse gas emissions, and the role of renewable energy. On the material side, it examines resource requirements and circular economy strategies under scenarios driven by different mechanisms. It models how digitalisation may evolve and what this could mean for energy systems, resource use, and climate outcomes. The purpose is not to predict the future, but to prepare for what it may become and to inform strategies.

 Speaker Details:

Dr Yee Van Fan is a Senior Researcher in Digitalisation, Circular Economy and Net Zero in the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow (Environmental Change) at Reuben College.

Yee Van’s research focuses on assessing the environmental and climate impacts of resource, waste, and energy systems using system-level quantitative analysis. Her work supports data-driven decision-making for climate change mitigation and circular economy transitions, drawing on life cycle assessment, optimisation, and scenario modelling across scales from individual technologies to global systems. More recent research extends this work to examine the role of digitalisation and its wider systemic effects.

from Oxford Environmental Change Institute Page