Measuring the Digital Transformation
A Roadmap for the Future
Measuring the Digital Transformation: A Roadmap for the Future provides new insights into the state of the digital transformation by mapping indicators across a range of areas – from education and innovation, to trade and economic and social outcomes – against current digital policy issues, as presented in Going Digital: Shaping Policies, Improving Lives. In so doing, it identifies gaps in the current measurement framework, assesses progress made towards filling these gaps and sets-out a forward-looking measurement roadmap. The goal is to expand the evidence base, as a means to lay the ground for more robust policies for growth and well-being in the digital era.
Digital transformation and the environment
The production and use of information products is associated with the generation of “greenhouse gases”, such as carbon dioxide (CO2). The amount of CO2 produced by information industries, relative to the amount of output produced, varies greatly between countries. Air Emissions Accounts (based on the UN System of Environmental Economic Accounting), show that in most European countries less than 5 tonnes of CO2 are produced for each million USD of output from the information industries. Meanwhile rates of over 20 tonnes have been observed in Poland, Slovak Republic and Hungary. Many different factors contribute to this situation, including the prevalence of ICT manufacturing and the extent to which each country relies on fossil fuels for electricity production. The carbon-intensity of information industries has remained stable or fallen in many countries since 2008, with Spain, Poland and Hungary as notable exceptions.