Tech trends fueling the green transition of society in 2022

• Telenor Research released a report on tech trends that will fuel the green transition of society in 2022
• Environmental policy and regulation will also increase the demand for green job skills in 2022
• Malaysia announced its commitment to become a Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emission Nation by 2050 at the 13th Asia-Europe Summit (ASEM 13)

Over the past decade, there has been a remarkable rise in technology. The world is becoming increasingly dependent on technology, making it harder to imagine lives without this integral part of it. 

Despite the evolution from wired to wireless and the emergence of cloud computing, another critical piece still needs to be put into place: the green transition towards renewable energies.

As these technologies become more commonplace in society, there is an increasing need for engineers and entrepreneurs to develop new ways to reduce their impact on the environment. 

Tech trends fueling the green transition of society 

Telenor Research predicts that technology and digitalization will come to our aid in 2022 as the climate change alarm bells ring louder in its latest Tech Trends report.

Data centres globally account for more than 1% of the world’s energy consumption and the immense growth in data usage drives energy demand. To combat this, edge data centres and 5G will help make data transfer more energy efficient.

This means less energy will be required for data transfer as there is less distance for it to travel over telecommunication networks. 

“We predict that 5G networks worldwide will have the capability to do local breakout of data traffic to and from Edge data centres,” says Bjørn Taale Sandberg, Head of Telenor Research.

He added that the data centres could be made energy efficient in many ways and these will start cropping up, at an increasing rate, in 2022.

Businesses implementing green micro-degrees 

Climate change will require people, businesses, and society to adapt to lifelong learning on sustainability and the green transition.

The number of employees who want to do something positive for the climate is rising. Employees want to act and want their companies to do the same. 

Environmental policy and regulation will also increase the demand for green job skills in 2022. Therefore, businesses will be perceived as less attractive in the eyes of new talent, if they fail to facilitate opportunities to acquire green online learning credentials for their employees.

Optimization on gadgets and servers

The International Energy Agency has called for smarter and more efficient electrical appliances as there is a global need for greater energy efficiency.

As the world’s largest chipmakers continue to compete for a more significant share of the global semiconductor industry, there has been growing pressure on manufacturers to pursue energy-efficient chips. 

An example of this is the M1 chipset used in Apple’s newest computers. 

Malaysia’s commitment to Net Zero

Malaysia’s Net Zero commitment to transitioning the country into a green economy is set to be one of the world’s most significant climate change efforts. 

The country announced its commitment to become a Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emission Nation by 2050 at the 13th Asia-Europe Summit (ASEM 13).

To further reduce greenhouse emissions (GHG), the Malaysian government introduced green investments, complemented by the progress since the signing of the Paris Agreement. They are looking to increase the unconditional Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to reduce GHG emissions by 45% from 35% previously.

The 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) has adopted a whole-of-nation approach to implementing the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“People everywhere are waking up to the need to act on climate change and environmental degradation. For us in Telenor, it is key to understand how technology can both avoid being part of the problem and help in the transition,” said Sandberg.

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