Technology

Technology plays a central role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), and SDG 13 (Climate Action). The transformative power of technology can accelerate progress towards all the SDGs by driving economic growth, reducing inequalities, enhancing access to basic services, and promoting sustainability.

Under SDG 9, technology, particularly in terms of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), is a key enabler of industrial innovation and infrastructure development. ICT has the potential to drive economic growth by enhancing productivity, creating jobs, and fostering entrepreneurship. Moreover, it can contribute to making industries more sustainable by facilitating the transition towards smart manufacturing and circular economy models.

Regarding SDG 4, technology can greatly enhance access to quality education. Digital technologies, including e-learning platforms, can break down barriers to education, such as geographical distance, socio-economic status, and physical disabilities. They can also enrich the learning process by enabling personalized, student-centered learning experiences.

In the context of SDG 3, technology has a profound impact on health outcomes. Medical technologies, from simple devices like thermometers to complex systems like MRI machines, have revolutionized healthcare delivery. Furthermore, digital health technologies, such as telemedicine and mobile health apps, can enhance access to health services, improve patient outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs.

For SDG 13, technology offers powerful tools for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Renewable energy technologies can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while climate information services can enhance resilience to climate impacts. Furthermore, digital technologies can facilitate the monitoring and reporting of climate actions, contributing to greater transparency and accountability.

However, the benefits of technology are not automatic, and there are significant challenges to overcome, including the digital divide, cybersecurity threats, and ethical issues related to privacy and data ownership. Thus, policy interventions and multi-stakeholder partnerships are needed to ensure that technology serves as a catalyst for sustainable development and does not exacerbate inequalities.

In this paper, an integrated blockchain-based energy management platform is proposed that optimizes energy flows in a microgrid whilst implementing a bilateral trading mechanism. Physical constraints in the microgrid are respected by formulating an Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problem, which is combined with a bilateral trading mechanism in a single optimization problem. The Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) is used to decompose the problem to enable distributed optimization and a smart contract is used as a virtual aggregator.
There is a wide array of biomass utilisation pathways to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The characteristic of biomass, the demand for products, and the local constraints determine the sustainability of utilisation. Generic principles and criteria can be applied to the analysis of specific instances. This work develops a decision-making tool for determining the most sustainable use of biomass for carbon management. The mathematical principles are based on break-even analysis and are visualised in the form of a graphical display for transparent communication of results to decision-makers.
With female names, voices and characters, artificially intelligent Virtual Personal Assistants such as Alexa, Cortana, and Siri appear to be decisively gendered female. Through an exploration of the various facets of gendering at play in the design of Siri, Alexa and Cortana, we argue that this gendering of VPAs as female may pose a societal harm, insofar as they reproduce normative assumptions about the role of women as submissive and secondary to men. In response, this article turns to examine the potential role and scope of data protection law as one possible solution to this problem.
This paper takes into account legal aspects such as GDPR and it extends the Healthcare Industry architecture reference model, with a set of tools dealing with consent management and data hiding tools
Assistive technology for the elderly has the ability to greatly enhance the experience of the elderly needing assistive technology. This book chapter addresses SDG 10 by covering the design of assistive technology including magnifying book contents, speaking electronic devices, alarms for doors and windows, smart alert bands, panic buttons, medication dispensers and reminders, Wander Gard, physiological parameters monitoring systems and smart home monitoring systems.
Reductions in carbon emissions have been a focus of the power sector. However, the sector itself is vulnerable to the impacts of global warming. Extreme weather events and gradual changes in climate variables can affect the reliability, cost, and environmental impacts of the energy supply. This paper analyzed the interplay between CO2 mitigation attempts and adaptations to climate change in the power sector using the Long-range Energy Alternative Planning System (LEAP) model.
Persuading individuals to engage in pro-environmental behavior is challenging. Interactive media, such as virtual environments and video games, present opportunities to minimize psychological distance and bolster perceived risks associated with environmental threats. In this experiment, we tested the effects of a serious game that allowed users to engage in environmental cleanup. In the virtual environment, participants (N = 190) navigated down a polluted river that was described as geographically and temporally close or distant.
Elsevier,

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 120, March 2020

Smart home technologies refer to devices that provide some degree of digitally connected, automated, or enhanced services to building occupants. Smart homes have become central in recent technology and policy discussions about energy efficiency, climate change, and the sustainability of buildings. Nevertheless, do they truly promote sustainability goals? In addition, what sorts of benefits, risks, and policies do they entail?

Leaders require new tools to make better strategic decisions in an increasingly complex and uncertain environment. The World Economic Forum offers Strategic Intelligence as an engagement option to help you understand the global forces at play and make informed decisions that will have a positive impact on your organisation. The platform contributes to a range of SDGs, including Goals 9 and 17.
Elsevier,

Agricultural Internet of Things and Decision Support for Precision Smart Farming, 2020, Pages 1-33

This chapter explores how using technology and precision farming can improve yields while protecting the earth's resources, advancing SDGs 2 and 12.

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