Future Earth is pleased to announce the launch of the Montreal Statement on Sustainability in the Digital Age. The collective statement from an international group of business, government, and science leaders highlights that we cannot achieve a climate-safe, sustainable, and equitable future without ensuring a secure, safe, and trusted digital world for all.

“We need to bet big on digital technologies, because they provide the kind of exponential transformative power needed to achieve the SDGs. We are making great progress applying digital technologies to help tackle sustainability challenges, but we are still not cooperating enough across the public and private sectors to drive the scale, speed and direction of change we need. The Montreal Statement on Sustainability in the Digital Age outlines areas where we urgently need to take more collaborative action to govern the technology sector and build a digital ecosystem for people and planet.” says David Jensen, Head of Environmental Peacebuilding with the UN Environment Programme.

The statement call for near-term action in five specific areas:

1. Build a new social contract for the digital age, which addresses individual rights, justice and equity, inclusive access, and environmental sustainability;
2. Ensure open and transparent access to data and knowledge critical to achieving sustainability and equity;
3. Foster public and private collaborations to develop and manage AI and other technologies in support of sustainability and equity;
4. Promote research and innovation to steer digital transformations toward sustainability and equity; and
5. Support targeted communication, engagement and education to advance the social contract.

Says, Heide Hackmann, CEO of the International Science Council (ISC) and member of the Future Earth Governing Council, “The broader international science community is just beginning to explore the powerful opportunities and profound challenges of the digital age, both for science and for society. At the ISC we have adopted this as one of our four key domains of action. The Montreal Statement on Sustainability in the Digital Age, outlines important areas of work that need to be pursued through the closer engagement of science with partners from policy and wider publics.”

Collaborators of the statement will also be taking part in a July 9th side-event at the UN High-Level Political Forum, exploring collaborative action for digital capacity-building to implement the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

See here what people are saying about the statement.

Read the full press release here (PDF).