Digital technology and energy sustainability: Recent advances, challenges, and opportunities

Digitalization and sustainability represent two global mainstreams, which affect many dimensions of economic activity and daily life. However, their interaction remains still underexploited with different synergies and tradeoffs between these goals. This Virtual Special Issue (VSI) entitled “Digital technology and energy sustainability: impacts and policy needs” presents recent research on the nexus between digital technology and energy sustainability. This editorial introduces seven recent studies on a variety of topics, presenting core materials and guidance in the related domains. The findings indicate that scope, topic, measurement, method, and data might be in contrast or even in contradiction to previous studies. Although the black box of the complex nexus between digital technology and energy sustainability is still not fully uncovered, the findings indicate that the spatial factor and technology-induced rebound effect are most likely the underlying mechanisms. Additional future research directions for exploring the digitalization–sustainability interaction are discussed in this VSI.

Wei, C., C.Z. Li, A. Löschel, S. Managi, and T. Lundgren. 2023. Digital technology and energy sustainability: Recent advances, challenges, and opportunities. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 190:106803.