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AI and energy: the hidden challenge of data centers
The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence brings not only technological but also significant energy-related implications. According to the International Energy Agency, data centers – the physical backbone of AI – could consume up to 3% of global electricity by 2030, an amount comparable to the current demand of an entire industrialized country. Yet these digital hubs could also become enablers ...
Protecting the Ocean for a Sustainable Planet
The health of the ocean is in critical condition, and it is deteriorating at a rate and in ways scientists say are unprecedented in the history of our planet. Huge amounts of plastics and chemicals are dumped into the environment every year in all parts of the world. Overexploitation of fish stocks has pushed fisheries of several species beyond the threshold of sustainability, with serious implications ...
Bringing Innovation to EU Public Administrations
The communication “Enhancing the European Administrative Space,” also known as “ComPAct,”[1] was adopted by the European Commission on October 25, 2023. It is innovative in that, for the first time, the Commission proposes a comprehensive set of actions in support of administrative modernization and cooperation in and between Member States at all levels (national, regional and local). The ...
Beyond illusions, within limits: business and the sustainability challenge
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, we have drawn on natural resources as if they were limitless. The air and water, the soil, the fish and the trees, all living things seemed at our disposal. Economic science has long suggested that wealth results from the combination of only two factors of production: capital and labor. As Jean-Baptiste Say wrote in 1803 in his book on Political Economy: ...
Transition Finance, Sustainability and AI
In recent years, major European banks have developed a list of sectors populated by companies with high CO2 emissions. The concept of "transition finance" is primarily about working with these companies to identify and achieve shared decarbonization goals, typically by 2030. However, as we know, in economics "everything is interconnected," so the list may not be exhaustive or entirely stable, requiring ...
The sustainability pendulum: stakeholders set the course
Sustainability took several hits in 2025, though none delivered a knockout blow. Regulatory progress slowed in both the U.S. and Europe, and mounting political pressure might suggest a retreat. Yet the underlying trend remains intact. Stakeholder demand continues to exert powerful influence beyond regulation. Clients, employees, local communities, and the media still expect measurable, verifiable ...
A disassembly line for the dustainable transition
Everyone knows that a circular economy is essential for reducing CO2 emissions. According to calculations by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, about 30 percent of all the decarbonization needed by 2050 to meet globally agreed targets depends on the circular economy. Few people, however, realize that the circular economy is also indispensable if we want to avoid running out of raw materials. The reason ...
The EU roadmap towards nature credits: new opportunities for business and risks management
Currently, if you cut a tree, you get revenues from timber. In some cases, you can even get money when you replace it through “reforestation schemes”. If you keep it alive, allowing it to continue to capture carbon and keeping intact the larger forest ecosystem, you are not remunerated. This is what should change and what nature credits (or biodiversity credits) could make possible. Recently the ...
Sustainability under attack: the green challenge between data and disinformation
For years, science has shown that climate change is real and driven by human activity. Recent news confirms that we have already crossed seven out of nine planetary boundaries that keep our planet in balance. Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, warns that we are jeopardizing the stability of Earth’s entire life-support system – vital for our prosperity ...
Managing nature’s portfolio: why natural capital really matters
Whether as farmers or fishers, foresters or miners, households or companies, governments or communities, we manage the assets to which we have access, in line with our motivations as best as we can. But the best each of us can achieve with our individual portfolios may nevertheless result in a massive collective failure to manage the global portfolio of all our assets. We are like a crowd of people, ...