How Can Industry 4.0 Contribute to Combatting Climate Change?

Adel Ben Youssef

Revue d'économie industrielle, 2020, vol. n° 169, issue 1, 161-193

Abstract: Climate change adaptation and mitigation, and industry 4.0 are two important challenges that countries worldwide are facing. The integration of climate change and industry 4.0 could bring several benefits related to promoting sustainability and global economic decarbonization, and achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement. We conduct a qualitative analysis to describe the main principles and basic technologies of industry 4.0, link industry 4.0 to climate change and identify the conditions which would make industry 4.0 climate compatible. Industry 4.0 needs to fulfil four conditions in order to be climate compatible. It must promote energy efficiency and achieve substantial energy gains, enable the circular economy and allow greater productivity and improved use of resources within closed loop supply chains which include re-use and recovery, achieve sustainable development through eco-innovation, and allow significant technology transfer to the least developed countries (LDCs) which must participate in industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 technologies that meet the above criteria will offer the potential for sustainable development and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. JEL classification: Q54, Q58, O33.

Keywords: Industry 4.0; climate change; UNFCCC; sustainability; energy efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O33 Q54 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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