By 2050 the world will have to reach zero CO2 emissions in order to keep the planet’s temperature rise within the limit of 1.5 C as decided by governments during COP26 in the recent meeting in Glasgow.
Nations, economies and industry in general, together with political and social communities, are putting forth great efforts from the point of view of innovation in the greentech technology sector, also supported by huge financial resources made available by governments, including policies to support economic recovery after the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This great challenge for humanity increasingly resembles a revolutionary process driven by technology and economic actors rather than by policymakers.
Important stakeholders such as financial and market regulators have recently entered the field and have begun to intervene on the reporting systems of companies mainly on two major issues.
The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) has proposed rules for the increase and standardization of mandatory communications relating to the need for companies to have objective analysis models for assessing the impact of climate phenomena on business continuity; in addition, companies will have to make their environmental footprint transparent in the context of ESG policies, avoiding the practice of “greenwashing”.
The EFRAG (European Financial Reporting Advisory Group), a European organization that has developed the ESRS principles (European Sustainability Reporting Standards), is moving in the same direction, also at a European level.
The proposals and the works of the financial stakeholders take as a common element the framework developed by the TCFD task force (Task Force Financial Disclosures) built on the generally accepted Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission assessment protocol.
The regulatory approach is therefore based on three aspects: governance, strategy and risk management that require objectives and metrics. It is this last element where research, debate and industry are further behind. In fact, there is a lack of shared models.
The COP26 final document in Glasgow recognized the urgent need for investments in science and technology to better guide governments and policymakers’ actions and decisions at the service of climate change.
Widech SpA’s point of view, on which it bases its business model, is to be a reference player in the synthesis between digital transition and energy transition, from the big data economy to the green data economy and decision science.
The architecture of the future of ecological transition is based on the ability to build a wealth of data and information on the environment, on its complex phenomena, on communities, organizations and businesses and on the real impact of greentech technologies in reducing CO2 emissions.
Widech proposes an infrastructure at the service of this transition based on environmental sensors, technologies, analysis platforms and algorithms to guide and support the strategies of the actors, providing objective results that meet the requirements that the regulatory bodies, including the financial markets, they are introducing.
In fact, algorithms are needed to specialize in the analysis of environmental phenomena and platforms that are also useful for involving all stakeholders, including citizens and social communities in general.
The challenge to the environmental transition cannot in fact concern only finance and the economy but is a revolution in which we must all participate for a smarter future.