To find the balance between digitization and greening, experts say that excessive digitization may increase energy consumption. Digital | Green | Digitization

To further promote the construction of green, intelligent, and ecological civilization, it is necessary to promote the coordinated development of digitalization and greening, with digitalization leading and greening driving digitalization.

On July 17th, the 2023 Shanghai Digital and Green Collaborative Development Forum with the theme of "Digital Leading, Green Driving" was held at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. At the meeting, the "2023 Shanghai Digital Green Collaborative Development Best Practice Case Set" was released, which includes 15 cases from 5 major industries. The case set aims to actively respond to the national digital green innovation development practice, deeply promote the digital green collaborative development of various industries, and provide reference for relevant government departments and enterprises. Wang Zhen, Vice President of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and Director of the Institute of Information Technology, and Qin Hongbo, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Energy Efficiency Center, presented awards to the "Best Practice Cases of Digital and Green Collaborative Development in Shanghai in 2023".

Wang Zhen pointed out that the collaborative development of digitalization and greening has risen to the national strategic level, and Shanghai is at the forefront of promoting the collaborative transformation of digitalization and greening. With the digital transformation led by artificial intelligence entering a new stage and the green transformation igniting a new wave, there is great potential for collaborative development of digital and green technologies.

Zhang Min, Deputy Director of the Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization Division of Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Commission, said that in-depth discussion on how to fully integrate digitalization and greening into the whole chain system of manufacturing industry and further promote the integration of industrial intelligence and greening is of great significance to the construction of a modern industrial system with integrity, progressiveness and security.

To promote the collaborative development of digitalization and greening, the first step is to clarify the internal logic of the dual transformation collaboration. Fan Jiajia, Director of the Smart City Research Office at the Information Research Institute of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, believes that on the one hand, digital technology can provide support for green production, including data elements, data governance, intelligent generation management, etc., empowering green development through digitization; On the other hand, energy storage technology, carbon sequestration technology, new energy technology, and other technologies can provide transformation impetus for the digital economy, and promote digital technology upgrading through greenization.

"It should be pointed out that not all digital scenarios are conducive to energy conservation and carbon reduction in the process of promoting the synergy between digitalization and industrialization. Excessive digitalization may actually increase energy consumption." Fan Jiajia said that this is because digital basic materials essentially come from energy and material intensive industries, so it is not necessary to give all green technologies a digital shell. It is necessary to find the intersection and balance point between the integration of digitalization and greening, and to produce energy-saving and emission reduction effects while developing digitalization. While promoting greening, it does not affect the long-term development of digital economy. She suggested that we should promote the coordinated development of industrialization and industrialization from three aspects: economy, technology, and system. In terms of economy, it is necessary to deeply explore and cultivate business models that promote the coordinated development of industrialization and industrialization, and increase capital investment; In terms of technology, we need to accelerate the research and development of digital and green technologies, and innovate application scenarios; In terms of system, government departments should refine relevant policies, formulate specific measures, and suggest establishing a dual transformation collaborative management organizational mechanism led by a single department and coordinated by industry departments, and build a communication platform for dual transformation collaborative politics, industry, research and learning.

Gao Qinghao, Deputy Director of the Digital Economy Research Department of the East China Branch of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, pointed out that green development can be divided into three stages: the first stage is local environmental governance, and the second stage is global climate governance. At present, the world has entered the third stage of green development, which is mainly characterized by the interweaving of political cooperation, climate governance, and economic stimulus demand. In the future, energy structure optimization, digital and green transformation of key industries, and the construction of carbon trading markets will become the main paths for global green development. Taking the industrial sector as an example, the specific path of digital empowerment for green development is to reduce the energy consumption of production and manufacturing equipment, and improve the energy efficiency level of production equipment; The second is to improve the process flow and achieve intelligent production lines, thereby increasing cost and energy efficiency; The third is comprehensive management of industrial energy, achieving technological management of energy and improving the level of comprehensive energy management in industrial enterprises; The fourth is the reuse of industrial raw materials and waste.

During the roundtable discussion and enterprise sharing session of the forum, representatives from multiple enterprises exchanged ideas on innovative practices, key and difficult points in promoting digital and green collaborative development. This forum is jointly hosted by the Information Research Institute of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the Shanghai Energy Efficiency Center, and the East China Branch of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. The Smart City Research Office of the Information Research Institute of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the Digital and Green Collaborative Development Research Center of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and the Digital Economy Research Department of the East China Branch of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology jointly undertake the project.

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