Joint Statement: Digital technologies can alleviate the ongoing energy price spike and prevent future crises

REPowerEU is a huge opportunity to save money for households and to transform our societies to be greener and less dependent on fossil fuels and on unreliable suppliers, particularly Russia. But in order to achieve its goals we must use digital technologies to their full potential to mitigate the ongoing energy crisis and especially to prevent similar future crises.

No one will be spared from the knock-on effects of the energy crisis. European households will also be under increased pressure to make ends meet and soaring prices could push many businesses to shut down.

Digital technologies can provide medium and long-term energy efficiency solutions that can support all sectors and households to save electricity and cut costs.

In our recent paper: Digital Action = Climate Action, we provide a range of positive examples across five key sectors: Construction, manufacturing, energy, transport and agriculture.

Let’s take buildings, which generate just under half of European CO2 emissions. Digital technologies like artificial intelligence solutions and the Internet of Things have the power to boost energy efficiency in buildings by 40%.

Renewable energy is crucial to relieve us from the heavy dependence on fossil fuels but the amount of renewable production that can be injected into the energy grid depends on a range of factors. Digital solutions play a key role. An AI-based tool developed and deployed in a Belgian windfarm increased the amount of renewable energy injected on the grid by 5-6%.

We are concerned that recent announcements by the Commission and Member States make no mention of this potential. Furthermore, the 20% digital spending target in the Recovery & Resilience Facility has been removed for RePowerEU spending. Experience shows there is no better time to make the change than now.

Green tech is not only good for our planet, but it also offers a huge economic benefit for SMEs including a big potential for cross-border growth. In 2020 the global green tech market exceeded 4 trillion euros and it is set to reach 9.4 trillion euros by 2030.

We will not reach our climate goals or secure our future energy supply without technology.

Download the statement

PDF