JULY 2021CIOAPPLICATIONSEUROPE.COM8IN MYOPINIONhe last decade has been tumultuous in many aspects. Climate change and the steady loss of our planet's biosphere in the Anthropocene era (or is it already the Diocene of the robots?) is pushing humanity to look for new ways of addressing unprecedented challenges. We are flirting with `planetary boundaries' too much, as Pr. Johan Rockstrom from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research would put it. Managing resources and energy scarcity, decreasing green house gas emissions, or protecting biodiversity are just some of the fundamentals to sustain a decent life in this hyper-connected world where goods and epidemics are moving at light-speed. This is why the European Commission is now focusing on the most pressing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The ambition is clear: Europe aims to be the first climate-neutral continent by becoming a modern, resource efficient economy while preparing the continent to be fit for the Digital Age. Mitigating climate change at a global scale is a huge defy nonetheless, and time is running out. Cities may cover Immediate Action Needed to BoostGreen Digital TransformationThroughout the Cities andCommunities of the European UnionTonly a tiny part of the Earth's land surface, yet they produce more70% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. On top of that, cities are growing fast. Around 85% of Europeans are expected to become city dwellers by 2050. Cities are also the breeding ground where decarbonisation strategies for buildings, energy, mobility and even industry or agriculture meet. As the density of infrastructure is higher in cities, there is an equally higher potential for cross-sector and complex digital solutions such as digital platforms,smart grids or digital twins. This past decade gave birth to a plethora of new techno concepts such as big data, HPC, edge computing, blockchain, connected and automated vehicles, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality, or facial recognition; each of them with a potential to become game changers for city life. Think of 5G-type technology connecting terabytes of urban data feeding machine-learning systems. Another inevitable trend is the rise of city sensing capabilities thanks to thousands of connected cameras and sensors deployed in public spaces that collect real-time data linked to other data sets like earth observation data, or geo positioning data. The city itself becomes a living body capable of sensing and responding to its changing environment. A true embodiment of the smartness concept. The question is will AI and the likes be the answer to our problems? The European Commission is keen to support European cities in their twin (green and digital) transformation in the `European way', that is with systemic and `clean'solutions that ensure `technological leadership' and autonomy, respect European values and diversity, as well as CRISTINA MARTINEZ, DEPUTY HEAD SMART MOBILITY AND LIVING, EUROPEAN COMMISSION
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