Definitions
Environmental Sustainability is commonly defined as “the ability to maintain or improve standards of living without damaging or depleting natural resources for present and future generations” (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2021). This concept applies to the present chapter to the extent that improvements in energy efficiency and lowering of greenhouse gases can contribute significantly to achieving a country’s economic goals through industrial development that can be enacted with fewer costs and reduced environmental impact.
Energy Efficiency is referred to here as “energy efficiency refers to a method of reducing energy consumption by using less energy to attain the same amount of useful output” (Energeysage, 2019). In practical terms, energy efficiency eliminating or reducing energy waste. Energy efficiency brings a variety of benefits: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing demand for energy imports, and lowering energy consume costs.
Greenhouse gases (GHG) are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gas, among others). GHG are emitted by man-made activities as well as by natural causes. Carbon dioxide is the primary GHG emitted through human activities. Large emissions of GHG lead to higher concentrations in the atmosphere, which in turn leads to the “greenhouse effect”, or the trapping of the sun’s warmth in the planet’s lower atmosphere and therefore a rise in earth’s biosphere temperature (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2021).
Technology innovation refers to “new or improved product or process whose technological characteristics are significantly different from before” (Tilastokeskus, 2000[REMOVED HYPERLINK FIELD]). In the presentchapter, the term technology innovation is used to describe internet- or ICT-based changes in industrial processes and choice of raw materials that can result in greater industrial output while at the same time reducing its environmental impact.
Green ICT refers both, to the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to improve environmental sustainability of [industrial] products or processes, as well as the minimization of any negative impact of the IT operations themselves.
South-South cooperation is a term used to describe the “exchange of knowledge, resources and technology between developing countries.
Premises
This chapter presents a case based on three premises: (i) that energy efficiency and reduction in GHG emissions are important to enhance environmental sustainability; (ii) that technology innovation can contribute significantly to industrial integration of energy efficiency and reduced GHG emissions; and (iii) that south-south cooperation to facilitate the adoption of technology innovation for those purposes is a viable and effective way to generate such result.