COP 29: Accelerating Green Action with Digital Technology

COP29 was referred to as ‘Finance COP,’ with many countries highly vulnerable to climate change impact, it is now more than urgent to mobilise climate finance and to scale innovation in order to address planetary crisis. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN's specialized agency on digital technology, this is the first time that digitalization has been set as a major theme. This is an area where Fujitsu has considerable expertise, making the Company’s presence at COP29 highly relevant and beneficial to attendees. Another area where Fujitsu possesses great strength is generative AI, a technology that is becoming ubiquitous worldwide across a growing number of applications.

Despite the many opportunities it is creating, generative AI consumes vast quantities of energy, leading to intense discussions about how to mitigate its impact on climate change. The result was the ITU announcing the COP29 Declaration on Green Digital Action during a high-level round table featuring ITU Secretary General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev and other notable representatives from UN organizations, governments, and global telecommunications and IT companies. The Declaration outlines eight principles, including the use of digital technology to fight climate change. Secretary General believes, “There will be no green without digital and so we need to join forces, and every digital action has to have green at the core.”
Takashi Yamanishi, EVP and CSSO (Chief Sustainability & Supply Chain Officer) of Fujitsu, also participated in the roundtable, explaining Fujitsu’s efforts to reduce GHG emissions.