Can technology play a constructive role in confronting environmental and climate crises? The new edition of the Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch), titled Technology, the environment and a sustainable world: Responses from the global South, connects researchers from across the globe to examine the role of technology from a climate justice perspective.

This edition, which will be launched on 22 April, coinciding with International Earth Day, addresses the twin challenges of environmental crises and digital transformation. It offers perspectives that counter dominant techno-solutionist approaches that overlook research on the negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of digital technologies.

This critical and urgent edition of GISWatch contains 46 country and regional reports, together with a series of thematic reports. They explore multi-dimensional challenges confronting civil society in our efforts to build a just and sustainable world in the age of digital transformation.

From lithium extraction in the salt flats of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile to the use of artificial intelligence for curbing animal trade in Uganda, from gender-inclusive approaches for high frequency radio connectivity projects in Brazil to the potential of community networks to create a more just and sustainable world – follow our researchers around the globe as they look at the role of technology in the fight for climate justice.

In the words of GISWatch editor Alan Finlay, "What we wanted to do was to problematise the normative relationship between environmental sustainability and technology: the idea that technology, and the use of technology, is necessarily and automatically a panacea to the various environmental crises facing the planet."

Date: Thursday, 22 April 2021

Time: 12:00 UTC - 13:30 UTC

Where: Zoom platform (clicking this link will open the call)

Languages: Translators will provide live interpretation in Spanish and French, with closed captioning in English. 

Curious to learn more about this year's edition of GISWatch? The 2020 Sneak Peek is now available and contains the introduction plus six full-length reports.

Read more on the APC and GISWatch websites.

Follow us on Twitter for daily updates on @apc_news and through the #GISWatch and #TechandClimateJustice hashtags.

For interviews with the authors, coverage and other press inquiries, contact Leila Nachawati, APC’s media outreach lead: leila@apc.org