Full Title: THE D^2S AGENDA: Research, Innovation, Action
Author(s): Amy Luers
Publisher(s): Digital Disruptions for Sustainability
Publication Date: March 4, 2020
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
“If solutions within this system are so impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself.” This is the message of Greta Thunberg and the youth activists around the world demanding climate action. It is simple and powerful. Yet few global efforts are dedicated to making it happen – to changing the systems that are inhibiting transformative climate actions.
Most climate mitigation strategies approach the climate crisis principally as a carbon management problem, focusing on reducing emissions by sector (e.g. energy, transport, or food). Sector-based emissions reduction work is critical, but it is not sufficient. This is because, while research indicates that deep decarbonization is technically possible, we have not yet figured out how to steer society onto a decarbonization path. More research and innovation on this issue are urgently needed.
In this report, the Digital Disruptions for Sustainability Agenda (D^2S Agenda), we explore this issue – how to steer society onto an inclusive deep decarbonization path. Our approach considers the climate crisis principally as a social challenge, where the formal and informal rules, power structures and dynamics, and mindsets embedded in our social systems are constraining climate actions. We explore the opportunities and challenges of leveraging the capabilities of the digital age to disrupt these rules, power structures, and mindsets and break the constraints to action.