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- 00:00With this, I will now open the first panel: "Climate Impact of Digitalization" and as the first impulse, as the first panelist, I would like to welcome
- 00:12and ask for his input:
- 00:14Professor Doctor Dirk Messner. He is the President,since 2020, the President of the Federal Environmental Agency. He was previously director
- 00:28of the UN Institute for Environment and Human Security, Vice Director of the UN University and Director of the German Institute.
- 00:37for Development Policy, thus
- 00:39he knows what he is talking about. We're glad to have them.
- 00:42Maybe we'll do it that way after their impulse, if they're already going to the podium then, that we'll then follow up with
- 00:50when everyone has given their feedback, we can then start directly with the discussion. Thank you very much, Mr. Meinel, my very
- 00:57Ladies and gentlemen, dear Franziska, it's nice to see you live again, that's great.
- 01:02I'm speaking from three perspectives on the topic of digitization and sustainability: For a long time, I was a member of the scientific advisory board "globale
- 01:08Environmental Change", for ten years, and the last major report for which I was jointly responsible, that was on the
- 01:14digitization and sustainability, because we found that the topic was not being dealt with at all, that these research
- 01:19communities don't stand together at all, that we don't even know
- 01:22on the sustainability side where the potentials are, there is a lot to do. That's my first perspective of more scientific
- 01:27Advisory Council "global environmental change", then in the Federal Environment Agency the State Secretary has just indicated that is digitization
- 01:34is an important topic for us.
- 01:35I've made that more important again, sort of in the last two years since I've been there now, because in this study we're
- 01:40of the WBGU have shown that there is a lot of potential, generally not mobilized so I'm talking about missing links, we
- 01:47have to create a lot of missing links between these potentials and what we actually want to solve.
- 01:52The third perspective I'm speaking from is an international perspective.
- 01:56We at the Federal Environment Agency have formed an international alliance with a number of other partners.
- 02:00Mr. Meinel, we should also talk about that, I think that's very good, where we try to address this issue also on the global level
- 02:06moving forward, because you talked about the SDGs.
- 02:08The interesting thing is yes, when the SDGs were adopted in 2015 or, when we were discussing Paris
- 02:15then also adopted this this autumn of multilateralism 2015,
- 02:20digitization didn't play a role at all.
- 02:23In this SDGs, you don't find this digitization mentioned at all, and we are arguing today, after all, with good reasons: "We
- 02:29will not be able to solve the SDGs without digitization."
- 02:32However, digitization, even if we don't align it properly, can lead to accelerating
- 02:37of the unsustainable growth patterns, so with even more force, so to speak, digitization can lead to growth spurts
- 02:44produce, which produce us even more climate problems, even more resource problems. Creating these links
- 02:50is very important to us.
- 02:51We work at the global level with UNDP together with UNEP together in the International Science Council.
- 02:56the Future Earth Alliance, is indeed the global sustainability research and in this context we advise the Secretary General
- 03:04of the United Nations to reinterpret and realign the SDGs from a digitization perspective.
- 03:11There is a process called Global Digital Cooperation, and we are involved in it with our network
- 03:17to redefine the environmental dimension of digitalization, so to speak.
- 03:21So we should definitely talk to each other because they are working on a lot of questions, a lot of issues that we are also
- 03:27play a role, and there is worthwhile, I think
- 03:28Cooperation. I would like to say something about three aspects and I think this fits well with what Mr. Meinel and the Secretary of State have already
- 03:35have stated. From my perspective, from our perspective, on the one hand, we have to put "greening IT" first, which is basically
- 03:44the first necessary step that we have to take, so that digitization itself does not become a problem.
- 03:51There you have the relevant numbers,
- 03:52Mr. Meinel, called. "Greening IT," I'll say 2-3 sentences on that in a minute. The second point then is we have to try to better
- 03:59understand where digital tools and digital innovations can become enablers to solve the problems that we face through the SDGs
- 04:07described by the target system, i.e., "digital as an enabler, as a problem solver," and
- 04:14there's still a lot of work to be done on how we can best use that so that we can be more effective in climate change mitigation in the
- 04:19resource issues and in the circularity of the economy, use these digital tools in a way that we can move faster.
- 04:25That's the second dimension, "As an enabler." And the third dimension is,
- 04:29if I look quite optimistically at the development, maybe that's the disruption that we're looking at in climate protection, Franziska,
- 04:37have been waiting for.
- 04:38You pointed out: We are in a "decade.
- 04:41Factor Three." We've done 2% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per year over the last 10-15 years, 2%! We
- 04:49but now need 6%, towards 2030. tripling!
- 04:53We will need to expand renewable factor 3 in this decade and continue like this in the next decade,
- 05:00Factor 3. If you look into building retrofits, also factor 3. So these technologies are the disruption and the
- 05:08potential that we can leverage to really move forward quickly here,
- 05:12and I would like to give you 2-3 thoughts on that as well. That's the basic structure and now just a few thoughts on each.
- 05:19The first point "Greening IT". There, in principle, I can only subscribe to what we have already heard.
- 05:24At UBA, we are working very specifically on three issues at the moment: The first issue is the data centers, about that
- 05:30we have already talked about, the data centers. We did a study, from UBA where we looked at.
- 05:35The first important finding is: we don't know anything about the energy efficiency of the data centers, because we don't have any
- 05:39standards, we don't have monitoring systems, so that's where standard meeting and regulation and benchmarking is needed,
- 05:45big field.
- 05:47They also executed that
- 05:48Mr. Meinel. We have found data centers with high energy efficiency, we have data centers
- 05:54found with incredibly poor energy efficiency, but there is no transparency in the market, we have no
- 05:59mechanisms there to provide competition, and we need those. The second field we're looking at, it's also already been addressed,
- 06:04"Software," Franziska you brought that up, we work closely with you guys, that's where the problem is just like Mr. Meinel brought up the
- 06:10describes, from our perspective. We don't have heuristics at all yet to measure the energy efficiency or the energy consumption of algorithms.
- 06:18and software in a really consistent way.
- 06:22That's why a number of research projects, one.
- 06:24you just mentioned, Franziska, where we are looking at these issues of methodologies and heuristics for efficient
- 06:31energy efficiency consideration of software. Then we'll look at digital tools and infrastructures and products.
- 06:39The observation there is: a lot of the products that are digitally driven have very short life cycles and then you quickly end up
- 06:46with e-waste. Lifecycles,
- 06:48and extending those life cycles on the one hand, and how do we advance circular economy so that we can
- 06:54the resources that are consumed here can actually be recycled back into the digital business.
- 07:00Those are the big challenges that we have to deal with.
- 07:03And that's the UBA package that's going on there right now, so greening IT, that's the first dimension if we don't get that done,
- 07:10then we won't even get to the second step, which is "Digital as an enabler", irony of history, so to speak.
- 07:17We have great hope that these tools will help us unlock the potential in our economy that we need for
- 07:23Climate action and circular economy.
- 07:25But first, we need to see the digital processes themselves become sustainable.
- 07:29So the potentials in the enabling area. Here I am very optimistic, I have to tell you, because almost all of the
- 07:36studies that are available show that the potentials, I'll sign off, potentials, not what we realize, the potentials
- 07:43of digital innovations and tools for decarbonization, for circular economy, for dematerialization, for monitoring.
- 07:51of ecosystem and therefore protection of ecosystems and then optimization in climate research itself.
- 07:57As far as our models are concerned all these potentials are underlined in majority of the studies.
- 08:03So we have to lift those now.
- 08:05I am optimistic in this dimension, we need incentive structures for this.
- 08:08As long as we have a tax system that essentially taxes labor and hardly taxes resources, we should not be surprised.
- 08:15that digital innovation is being used to save labor, not resources.
- 08:19This is about appropriate incentive systems so that we can mobilize this potential. That's the second dimension, optimism
- 08:25from my side and now the third dimension comes briefly and that brings me to the end,
- 08:30is that the disruption we need, so this can be a game changer, is it not just about containment
- 08:39of risk if we don't create Green IT, but is there a potential here that really sustainability transformation
- 08:45that we're all talking about with a new perspective.
- 08:49I think there's a great opportunity there, and I just want to outline that with two examples.
- 08:54The first example is, we have, if we look at the large companies around the world, studies that show if you look at the
- 09:00largest 500,000 companies look.
- 09:0240% of these companies now have a science-based climate strategy.
- 09:07That's good, it should be 100%, we're at 40.
- 09:10Of that 40%, only 5% are taking advantage of the opportunities of their climate strategies, with their AI strategies, which they are also pursuing, with a
- 09:20To combine with each other.
- 09:21That is in the companies themselves, even in the large companies around the world, have a parallelism of AI processes on the one hand
- 09:28and digital innovation and climate protection on the other hand, and so they can do what I just mentioned under enabling
- 09:33mobilize at all because of that. We had
- 09:35a few days ago, Franziska, with Robert Habeck and the Minister of Science and the Industry 4.0 platform,
- 09:41about this, the discussion: how we in the companies can do this merging of climate orientation, climate strategy on the
- 09:47one side and digitalization, how we can better combine these. There's still a lot of potential there for Game
- 09:54Changing, because the proportion of companies that have already systematically linked their digital strategies with climate strategies
- 10:01Is vanishingly small.
- 10:03There's still a lot of room to go, there's a lot we can support from science.
- 10:07Politics can set the incentive systems, the companies themselves have to put this on the agenda.
- 10:12And the second point I would like to conclude with now, this auditorium is exactly right and Mr. Meinel,
- 10:17You have said everything that is relevant there, and I would just want to underscore it: We need to do research on the
- 10:23digitization and research on climate neutrality, circularity, and sustainability together.
- 10:30And there's an incredible amount of room to go up there as well because both of these research communities, you pointed out,
- 10:35there's not even a journal for it, they're barely networked together yet.
- 10:39Now if I had some slides with me, at this point I usually show a slide with the highlights of the AI research
- 10:45of 2020/2021 from the international congresses of AI research. Then you can hardly believe when you see the top ten
- 10:52Topics:
- 10:53But there's not a single one in the top 10 either,
- 10:56that with our questions that we are discussing today "Greening IT", sustainability and digitalization, there is not a single one
- 11:02among them. So we still need to merge these two things also in the research area, and then we have great opportunities
- 11:07not only to narrow down problems, "Greening IT", but to raise the enabeling potentials and maybe even to Game Changing
- 11:15Situations to come.
- 11:16Thank you very much for your attention,
- 11:24Mr. Messner, thank you very much, it is always a pleasure when a scientist also heads a federal agency, for the fireworks of ideas.
- 11:32May I ask the next panelist, Dr.
- 11:36Bernhard Rohleder here on stage, he the was a founding member of Bitkom Verband der IT-Industrie in 99,
- 11:49has been the chief executive officer since then.
- 11:52Some people say Bitkom
- 11:54be
- 11:54Rohleder, was previously in senior positions at the VDMA,
- 12:02in the Brandenburg Ministry of Economics at ZF Friedrichshafen,
- 12:06please give their input. Mr. Meinel thank you very much, at this point I'm always almost under so much pressure to justify why I'm doing the
- 12:13been doing this for so long, but I can say it's a job that totally excites.
- 12:18After all, we all don't just have one life, we have several lives, I also have two lives and the first life I worked on in the
- 12:23Environmental research. I did my PhD on a topic that we're also talking about here 25 years ago and I was talking almost daily about
- 12:31deja vu every year. At the Environmental Policy Research Unit, first reviewer at the time, was the Chairman of the International
- 12:37Panel on Climate Change, so issues that moved me at the time and that are now intertwined with this second passion, the
- 12:43digitization, can be brought together quite wonderfully. When I say deja vu, I mean it quite seriously, not only in my
- 12:50own academic training and now in my profession, but also in the topic of green IT, they just
- 12:56addressed Mr. Messner. We have in 2007 for the Cebit, that used to be the world's largest trade fair, a few will be
- 13:05know them.
- 13:05For the year 2008, the core theme sought the guiding theme, the guiding theme was "Green IT". 2008, so it's been almost 15 years now
- 13:14and we built up a traditional office there as Bitkom, so there was really someone sitting there and typing, and we
- 13:20set up a digital office and ran electricity meters on the side for seven days over the duration of CeBit.
- 13:27how much energy is consumed there.
- 13:29It was quite impressive numbers on that practice example. Did that really make a lot of difference?
- 13:35I would say no. We are discussing very similar issues today as we were 15 years ago, but with a very different drama
- 13:43Than we did back then.
- 13:45And if you ask yourself, "What is the reason that less has moved than could have moved and should have moved?",
- 13:51then it certainly has to do with the speechlessness between these two worlds.
- 13:55I still experienced this in the old federal government, at a round with Svenja Schulze it was about digitization of agriculture.
- 14:03We were the only business association sitting at the table. It was a small
- 14:07Round, all the environmental associations were there.
- 14:09The farmer's association was not there and what I already noticed there was a lot of reservation from the area
- 14:17of NGOs towards digitization.
- 14:19Not everybody really liked that at all when I talked about smart farming and talking about precision
- 14:24farming can reduce nitrate inputs to groundwater, because in many cases it's not just your own passion that's going to be reduced.
- 14:32on climate and environmental protection, but because other lifestyles and other economic designs are also related to it.
- 14:38connect.
- 14:38I think we're in a situation now where we have to be extremely pragmatic about these issues and how we can
- 14:44need to think about: How do we manage to solve this most pressing problem that humanity has ever had, this most pressing
- 14:50problem, and digitalization can perhaps also make a decisive contribution to this and, by the way, it can also help to solve this problem.
- 14:57without leading to dangerous discussions about abandonment.
- 15:02We can make it in many areas, not everywhere, but with digitalization, that we maintain our standard of living
- 15:09possibly even improve it and still and protect the climate at the same time.
- 15:14You have quoted the study, Ms. Brandner, that we as Bitkom have produced. We are also criticized for this study
- 15:20been.
- 15:20That was so a little bit nicely calculated etc, so we have
- 15:23there I can say yes, us as Bitkom very far taken back, we have only in order given, have the results
- 15:30looked at. They were also partly surprising for us, I may also say that.
- 15:34We found out some impressive numbers.
- 15:36Accelerated digitization 151 megatons of savings by 2030. 41% contribution to more ambitious climate
- 15:45and savings targets that we have in Germany, that's impressive.
- 15:48Of course, there is also a separate footprint of digitization.
- 15:52There is also a leverage, which is a factor of 5, so 5 times more CO2 or CO2 equivalent savings than own consumption.
- 16:00There's one area where, in terms of footprint, digital can't really do much.
- 16:06We have to use the energy that's generated from resources as it's just available in the marketplace, and we can
- 16:12reduce the footprint where we buy other energy.
- 16:17You just described that, Mr. Meinel, renewable energy sources, are not so heavily developed right now that
- 16:23we would have 100% corresponding electricity and as long as that is the case, there is this competition for the resource regenerative
- 16:31generated energy, and if that's where the big cash-rich companies come in, then of course those are the first ones,
- 16:37that pull there with an energy provider, and it's a renewable power that's missing elsewhere.
- 16:42But the footprint, I will say, can be significantly, can be significantly reduced by also changing the energy mix
- 16:49in Germany.
- 16:51Which fills me with, for all my optimism, some concern,
- 16:56that is the strong effort of policy makers to intervene in a very deep regulatory way in processes of the economy.
- 17:06I don't think it's going to work because we don't have the competence to really go in very deep at that point, in
- 17:12the algorithms and then to make a reasonable decision, which algorithm is the right one in a
- 17:19overall perspective really
- 17:20the more climate- or resource-friendly algorithm compared to a corresponding competing algorithm.
- 17:28And to that extent, at this point, my plea would be for policy makers to focus, to focus on what they're particularly good at, the
- 17:34framework and give very strong price signals to the market that the strongest signals that companies are receiving are
- 17:42can they are much stronger than regulatory intervention, and when we set price signals, so when primarily resource consumption is
- 17:49becomes more expensive, then that automatically means that digitization becomes more competitive.
- 17:55Small example fiber optic networks, copper networks.
- 17:58We have relied on vectoring in Germany for a long time. Vectoring means I have to use an extremely large amount of energy to get through the same
- 18:03copper cable to bring a larger amount of bits and bytes.
- 18:06Fiber is the much more environmentally friendly technology.
- 18:10There were wrong signals given by policy makers, in regulation, and at the same time energy was just way too cheap.
- 18:18So
- 18:18I personally look with some skepticism at the current discussion about heating costs, subsidies and about too high energy prices.
- 18:26It's actually exactly what we need.
- 18:28We need authentic prices on the primary
- 18:31resources, that's what we need.
- 18:33And then the economy is oriented out of self-interest, because companies always behave opportunistically, out of self-interest
- 18:40to these price signals and develops technologies that are particularly resource-efficient.
- 18:45The biggest opportunities we have are in the area of substituting digital power for physical power.
- 18:52What we're doing here is a typical
- 18:53physical meeting.
- 18:54I actually drove here in the car, I drive almost everything else
- 18:57by bicycle. Got a little physical problem,
- 18:59that's why it didn't work today.
- 19:01But of course it is much more resource consuming and intensive here than a video conference in the appropriate
- 19:09framework. Where we can substitute, that's where we're strongest, that's when we're most effective as a digital economy
- 19:17And make the biggest contribution,
- 19:19in terms of climate protection and resource conservation.
- 19:21That would be my appeal also to future work, that we look very strongly,
- 19:25Digital twin is one such example, we have calculated that as well, that we look at where we can leverage physical power
- 19:32substitute with digital power and focus quite strongly on that.
- 19:36That should be it.
- 19:37For now I look forward to the discussion
- 19:45Many thanks
- 19:45Mr. Rohleder. Next, I would like to welcome a colleague from Potsdam from the GFZ, the GFZ Earth System Modeling Section.
- 19:56here from the large-scale research institution Geo-Sciences, Professor Doktor Maik Thomas, please come in
- 20:03You. He has been leading this GFZ Earth System Modeling Section since 2007, and since 2013, he has also been a professor of fluid dynamics in Earth
- 20:15system at the FU Berlin.
- 20:17We look forward to your input.
- 20:20Thank you very much for the introduction. Good morning to you. When I was kindly asked, here is something about the conference.
- 20:27to contribute, which of course I find from that exciting,
- 20:30initially thought well, can't say anything at all. I'm an oceanographer, I run mathematical models on observational data.
- 20:42So I actually can't say much about the technical things, but what I might be able to present to you is why
- 20:49do we need digitization in the geosciences, specifically why do we need high performance there
- 20:56Computing? Is that usable tool or is it more gimmicky?
- 21:02So two examples that you all know so weather forecasting, there is
- 21:08the meaningfulness, usually nobody questions, is based on models. With climate models
- 21:15well, there the opinion is not so very clear, but there are already discussions, but there are many other possible applications
- 21:24for numerical models.
- 21:25These are only the two
- 21:26first ones, the most prominent ones.
- 21:27And I would like to show them where we use essentially numerical models at the Geoforschungszentrum in Potsdam.
- 21:36So what we do, we confront our models with reality, with measured data. There are definitely modeling branches
- 21:47that don't need any reality at all.
- 21:50And now say that quite self-critical. But what we do,
- 21:53we used numerical models to evaluate these various geodetic data and geophysical data. What they
- 22:02are seeing up there,
- 22:04what they see up there are different measurement systems: terrestrial, satellite based, sometimes airplane based
- 22:11supported so the diversity is very high.
- 22:15These measurement systems are extremely precise, but the problem is they always measure the sum of an almost infinite number
- 22:25of processes acting simultaneously.
- 22:29So we say we have an integral signal, if they have an altimeter, that measures sea level, there they have
- 22:34although a distance actually anrollende running time rather yes not and from that you say
- 22:39the sea level is so and so high. So until you get there it's already a long way, but even if they know that, they know
- 22:45still don't know, is there just more water in the ocean or it's gotten warmer or none of the above and just the bottom
- 22:51has moved. And that's the same with many other systems, for example, the gravity field.
- 22:55You may know the Potsdam potato from GFZ, so based on gravity field measurement for example with the satellite
- 23:02Grace mission, which we run together with our American colleagues.
- 23:06But it's not until you unleash complementary methods on these observational data, that is, you first have to get the raw data
- 23:14process, and you have to somehow develop methods to interpret this integral data, then they often come
- 23:20the quantities that we're actually interested in. Sea level change, groundwater storage changes, or what about
- 23:26Ice mass changes?
- 23:27They need models for that.
- 23:28So if you abstract it a little bit, this is how you can represent it.
- 23:32So we are in the process of contributing with models throughout the value chain.
- 23:38So starting with processing and cleaning observational data and ending with effect separation.
- 23:44How do you get from knowing the sum the individual
- 23:47summands?
- 23:48Then, in terms of the causal processes, we can interpret the signal. Once we understand that, we can
- 23:54by assimilation improve the models and then we have better production, better prediction and this
- 24:01prediction, which we can also use, among other things, to optimize, for example, future monitoring systems,
- 24:09to optimize economically or in terms of output. So the applicability of numerical models is much more diverse.
- 24:16than is widely perceived by the public.
- 24:19What is a numerical model, anyway?
- 24:22Can be explained quite simply, so first of all we summarize all that we think we have understood of the earth system
- 24:30or of climate dynamics in the form of equations.
- 24:33These then become so complicated so quickly that a closed analytical solution is no longer possible at all?.
- 24:39We then call these data of these equation monsters nonlinear partial differential equations, which per se are not
- 24:44solvable, so what do you have to do?
- 24:47You just have to discretize them in time and space, and then you calculate for certain lattice-
- 24:52points the solution for certain parameters that are of interest at the moment. That's the basic approach, that is, they have
- 24:58in space the variables and as a function of time, so four-dimensional. And it's clear that the quality of a
- 25:07of such a model of such a prediction depends on the model construct.
- 25:11How complex is the model, what processes are carried along, how it space-time resolution and how is the scalability
- 25:17In terms of computer architecture.
- 25:20With all these parameters, of course, the resource requirements increase, in terms of CPU processing time and memory,
- 25:31all depending on that.
- 25:32So we're using these computer architectures to tickle the processes out of the Earth observation data that we've
- 25:41of interest for climate research.
- 25:44If we times it so few numbers here opposite is completely correct, us is not at all conscious:
- 25:52What do we actually consume with such a model?
- 25:54Nobody asks that and it would be very difficult to know because it's very sensitive.
- 26:00Regarding the model design. I've included two examples here. It's the same American Earth system model.
- 26:07All configurations are the same, resolutions time step and so on.
- 26:12And the only thing that differentiates those is how you take atmospheric chemistry that just a tiny component and they're
- 26:18see immediately there's computational time going through the roof.
- 26:23The whole model performance is different because you can compute on other kernels,
- 26:26and so on. That is, we can't even keep track of that as geoscientists, that is extremely sensitive, but what we
- 26:33perceive, of course, is the demands, are getting bigger, despite all the development also in terms of hardware computing time-
- 26:40demands are getting bigger, but also the memory space is getting bigger, if there is for example Climate Model Intercomparing Project
- 26:46stand out, so a single example and look at the development over time these are typically, also
- 26:51if these numbers terabytes are not so high nowadays, but that's just one model, we're talking about multi model ensembles,
- 26:56then that also goes up exponentially.
- 27:00I have also collected a few headlines to get a sense of how much is the resource requirement.
- 27:07I don't even want to read them out one by one.
- 27:09Many examples Mr. Meienl has already brought much more concisely, just want to repeat This example with the data centers
- 27:15the demand for energy that it is comparable or the emission of CO2 is comparable to the entire aviation industry.
- 27:22But, and this is the last point, listed on this slide, the climate and earth sciences are massively dependent on
- 27:30On computing and storage capacity.
- 27:32Storage capacity particularly in the context of Earth observation data. And you can now ask yourself, is the cost of all this
- 27:38worth it?
- 27:39That's why I want to show 2-3 example just now where we apply these model methods to tease out relevant quantities of the climate system.
- 27:48The first example is for example a gravity field measurement over Antarctica, you think there is
- 27:56not much, there is no vegetation, hardly any life and so on.
- 27:59And you now measure this trend in the gravity field that means there is a change in mass and in the early days of the Grace satellite there was
- 28:06Publications in Nature, in Science and so on.
- 28:08Where it was simply said: It's quite clear, you see a deficit of ice masses here in the western region
- 28:13in the eastern area an accumulation of ice masses, but one has not considered that one also has the dynamics of the solid earth
- 28:20and if you do that, then you see that this positive fraction in the eastern area is
- 28:27Land elevation.
- 28:28And there's really only one deficit in the Amundsen Sea sector in the western area. so this same correction, that you have all the
- 28:35effects first, you can also do that in Greenland and then just look at what the signal of the ice looks like and
- 28:42this is shown here once for Greenland. And here you can see over the years how the ice masses change over time.
- 28:49In particular, deficits in the southeast area of Greenland and so on.
- 28:53They can then integrate all of that and they can then separate the total mass trend.
- 28:57But they can't do that if they don't apply complementary methods to the Earth observation data, because then they're going to have to
- 29:04interpret things as ice mass change that are not ice mass change at all, and that's the kind of thing that you can in principle
- 29:12do with the water mass changes for the whole earth.
- 29:16We see, for example, what a signal in terms of the deformation of the time-varying water content on the continents
- 29:25so the deformation causes this time variable water masses on the earth you can also convert that
- 29:32of course, shortly comes an example for Europe for Central Europe, in deficits of water masses and there you can visualize that
- 29:40what we all have experienced in the last summers, this water mass-
- 29:44Deficit in central Europe.
- 29:47Now you can say, that's where I come to my last example.
- 29:50Well, the resolution is nice for application purposes that you did that, but we can't do that much with it there
- 29:57These are not even in the catchment area of water basins and for that we are now just using methods of artificial
- 30:04intelligence. Not as complex as the examples they gave.
- 30:08We also work in completely different levels, always depends: what kind of uncertainties do you allow?
- 30:13How exactly do you want it?
- 30:14But that's a typical Grace signal,
- 30:17What you see on the left side. You can't see anything there that actually the average person can do anything with.
- 30:21But if they unleash neural network artificial intelligence methods on this field, then they have a field like this
- 30:28is on the right-hand side, and of course you can do that for the whole time domain.
- 30:32At the top is, for example, something like the observation, which you can then obfuscate, and then you look at how does that react
- 30:39System out of that with the artificial intelligence and that's the bottom and out of the match See, that works
- 30:45quite well, although we only have one resolution like that.
- 30:47On the left, you can work out very fine structures from it and that's just an economic aspect again because they then
- 30:52don't have to invest too much in sensor technology and in satellites, but also with such a coarse signal relatively much
- 30:58with such a coarse signal.
- 30:59So what I just want to say is that models are not only used exclusively for prediction but we need them in all steps of the
- 31:06value chain: to process, to interpret Earth observation data, but also to estimate uncertainties.
- 31:17Since the requirement for computation time and storage space depend very much on the complexity of a
- 31:24Model, on the resolution and many other parameters.
- 31:27And I leave you now: Is it worth it?
- 31:32Thank you very much.
- 31:39Thank you very much, dear Mr. Thomas, great mixture, which we now want to complete with Oliver Süme.
- 31:48He is the Chairman of the Board of the eco Association for the Internet Economy, run the world's largest Internet node and look after
- 31:58take care of all issues concerning the Internet economy.
- 32:02He himself is a lawyer with Fieldfisher in Hamburg and was previously president of the provider association
- 32:10EuroISPA to mention that as well. Mr. Süme please your input.
- 32:15Thank you very much for the kind introduction,
- 32:16Prof meinel. I am pleased to be here today.
- 32:19You have already briefly introduced the Eco Association, for which I am speaking here, and you have mentioned DE-CIX in particular.
- 32:25That is particularly a special feature for us as an association, that we are not only stakeholders of companies,
- 32:31but with DE-CIX as a wholly owned subsidiary, we ourselves are also a central component of the Internet infrastructure.
- 32:38not only in Germany, but worldwide.
- 32:41DE-CIX now operates such Internet exchange points at 22 locations worldwide.
- 32:48And to that extent, we are particularly, of course, a welcome customer of data centers, data center operators.
- 32:54That's why the data center industry is particularly close to our hearts, and it's already the subject of various comments today.
- 33:01have been.
- 33:02By the way, we can read quite well at DE-CIX what is happening in terms of digitization, because of course we see the data throughput there,
- 33:10that is happening in Germany in general. We assume that about 95% of the total traffic that happens in Germany is
- 33:18is coming through this DE-CIX node in Frankfurt am Main, distributed to different data centers there, that that's going through there.
- 33:26if you look at what happens especially in the pandemic years in the lock down and home office phases at the DE-CIX
- 33:33is, then this speaks a quite clear language.
- 33:35We have seen 20% more data throughput, data growth at DE-CIX in 2021, and of course that's due to
- 33:45to the framework conditions, which we all know, digital infrastructures, digital applications were used intensively.
- 33:52That has yes also a very positive effect in digitization booster, which we like to talk about, and it shows just
- 33:59then also in the data throughput at DE-CIX.
- 34:01We just detected a new all-time peak now in February, we measure the data throughput there per
- 34:08second and in February we measured 11 terabytes per second data throughput for the first time. To give you an idea of that
- 34:17that corresponds to about 2.4 billion written DIN A 4 sheets per second, mind you, if you were to stack it up
- 34:24they would come to a height of 240 kilometers, that happens there per second.
- 34:29And that shows of course digitization is data intensive and digitization and especially data centers need energy
- 34:37that's clear, but digitization above all also contributes to less CO2 emissions in many areas.
- 34:48energy consumption.
- 34:49The overall life cycle assessment, I think it's important to emphasize, of digitalization is quite positive, there are numerous
- 34:57examples.
- 34:58Let's take the one that has probably affected all of us: Working from home, in other words, the failure to require
- 35:05to drive or take public transportation to the offices to work has had a
- 35:12enormous CO2 emission saved.
- 35:15Just one day of home office per day, there's a study by Greenpeace on this, saves about 1.6 or 1.8 million metric tons
- 35:23CO2 emissions per year.
- 35:26These are things that we can save on, but also especially when we look at digital applications in industry
- 35:32particularly in manufacturing also there are studies that say by consistently using digital
- 35:39applications in production, we can create resource savings of up to ten billion euros per year.
- 35:46And of course these are also processes where we can become more efficient in production, in the maintenance of production processes.
- 35:54and that also saves energy and that can of course be expanded and that must also be the goal.
- 36:00Crucially, of course, the digital infrastructures themselves also have energy saving potential, and considerable potential.
- 36:08Mr. Rohleder mentioned it earlier, comparing copper technology to fiber. That is true to a similar degree, by the way.
- 36:16for the cellular standards as well.
- 36:18Switching from 5G to 4G saves 80% energy compared to the old standard when they compare it to 3G
- 36:2598% so also in the infrastructure application itself through innovation and latest technologies in digital infrastructure
- 36:35we have quite considerable savings potential and that is something that we should make much more use of in the future. by the way
- 36:43also the move of many companies to the cloud, which is still far from complete.
- 36:47Many companies, especially in the midmarket, are still working on their local, self-operated infrastructures.
- 36:54Is actually an absolute madness in terms of energy.
- 36:57When you move to the cloud, no matter which major provider, you save up to 80% of the energy that you would normally spend on
- 37:03costs on the clock if you run that as an enterprise yourself, so significant potential there as well. if we look at
- 37:12take a closer look at the data center industry, then of course, Ms. Brandner
- 37:18they also said it,
- 37:19of course this industry needs energy, but you also have to know that fortunately in Germany we already have
- 37:25in a global comparison, especially in a European comparison, we are among the most energy-efficient data center operators.
- 37:31include.
- 37:32We are very far ahead there, of course there is still room for improvement, and above all we are also very far ahead in the
- 37:39Innovation of the computing processes that take place there. If we look at the development since 2015
- 37:45then we've used 12 times less energy per workload since then than we did in 2010, because of course what's going on there in
- 37:55the data centers, the computing processes, which are of course indispensable for digitization, are being optimized further and further.
- 38:03are becoming more and more efficient.
- 38:05And that's a path that we want to continue to follow, of course, and to that extent we're very excited about the legislative announcement,
- 38:11Ms. Brantner, outlined this earlier, we are looking forward to being able to contribute with that.
- 38:18Keyword waste heat has been dropped.
- 38:20I think that in particular is a great potential that this industry has the data center industry, and we
- 38:28already have incredibly great best practices for what's possible.
- 38:32We know because we are located there just as DE-CIX, especially in the Frankfurt market very well, that is the largest data center
- 38:39density that you can find in Germany and there are various best practices there including the building complex
- 38:48Eurotheum, which is already saving up to 40% in energy costs today with the help of data center waste heat.
- 38:5670% of the waste heat from the data center is used to heat this building complex.
- 39:04And if we look at the potential of the data center industry as a whole in Germany, it shows how
- 39:09high the potential for this waste heat utilization is.
- 39:12We have about 50,000 data centers, in Germany there are also many small ones, but also large ones, as we have them
- 39:18in Frankfurt.
- 39:20If we were to consistently use this potential in Frankfurt alone as waste heat by 2030, then theoretically they could be
- 39:27heat all office and private buildings in Frankfurt with data center waste heat.
- 39:32That shows the potential of that.
- 39:36And to that extent, consistent waste heat recovery is indeed a very crucial key and a contribution that this industry
- 39:45can make to operate energy efficiently and with less CO2 emissions.
- 39:51The big question now, of course, is: How do we do that, which set screws do we need to turn?
- 39:55Ms. Brantner, you talked about a registry and transparency for the energy efficiency of the data center industry.
- 40:03make.
- 40:06I think first and foremost, we have to realize that if we're going to use this consistently, of course, it's going to require the
- 40:13Data Center industry can't do it alone.
- 40:15We're data center operators, we're not energy suppliers by design, so that means we're obviously focused on the
- 40:20exchange and cooperation also on a technical level with the network operators, with the municipalities.
- 40:27We can tell them what's coming out in terms of waste heat.
- 40:30But how it is then technically fed in, into the local supply or even into the district heating which technical prerequisites
- 40:37are required within the grid companies and the grid infrastructure in the energy sector,
- 40:42that is, of course, beyond our expertise, so it's very important that we get the key players here early on
- 40:48together and think about it and discuss it.
- 40:51Where are there obstacles, where do we need to work out solutions together and to that joint dialogue,
- 40:58in which we must above all also involve the municipalities, because after all, they are the ones who decide on this later:
- 41:03What is being fed into my network in terms of district heating or data center waste heat?
- 41:09There will also be a need for dialogue in that as a federal legislature they can't regulate that at all
- 41:15How the municipalities feed their energy into the grids there.
- 41:19In that respect, we hope to have early multi-stakeholder dialogue across the board that all stakeholders can engage in
- 41:28I think that's an important key to success in this area.
- 41:32What else is important?
- 41:33Standards have been addressed.
- 41:35Of course, standards play a crucial role in this area as well.
- 41:41I advocate that and I think that's quite an important criterion for success:
- 41:45Let's think about this in a European way, please. There are good standards, there are approaches where we have standards also in the energy efficiency
- 41:52Area also in waste heat utilization can be expanded.
- 41:56But let's not make the mistake of retreating to German standards.
- 42:01The competition for digitization and also for digital infrastructure is a European one and we are not doing a
- 42:08favor by chaining the German data center industry to a German island standard, and the competition
- 42:15in nearby foreign countries can operate on completely different terms.
- 42:19In this respect, this has to be a European approach, and in this context, I would also like to mention normally the GAIAX project
- 42:27which can perhaps also be an approach to be able to say here I am not only establishing data protection and security standards
- 42:34and standards for the secure exchange of data between different industry sectors, but possibly
- 42:40also standards for energy-efficient use of data sharing.
- 42:44In building data spaces.
- 42:46So that can also be an approach and it would be a good one in that it's a European one.
- 42:53Yes, these are, I think, adjusting screws that can be turned and that should be it.
- 42:58Now I'm looking forward to the discussion.
- 43:00Thank you very much.
- 43:07Thank you very much Mr. Süme, thank you very much gentlemen, that was a firework of different ideas, approaches and possibilities,
- 43:14that we have.
- 43:18Thank you very much, mrs. brantner, for being there.
- 43:24take care
- 43:30to start in a very concrete way
- 43:32You mentioned that little bit in code, Mr. Messner with certification software, "blue angel for software" might be
- 43:43that you explain that a little bit and then I would be interested in the reactions also especially from the from the economic sectors like
- 43:51that is seen, what do they have before that or how far along is that?
- 43:55We have shown that for an enormous potentiality in the digitalization see in the energy efficiency area to move forward
- 44:03in terms of climate neutrality to race ahead, circularity to progress and make and so on.
- 44:08And at the same time, we have to observe that the potentials are not self-perpetuating, so the question is at which set screws
- 44:14can we turn to move forward?
- 44:16Have mentioned a number of adjusting screws.
- 44:18That starts with research.
- 44:19You also addressed that Mr. Meinel.
- 44:21That goes on with the companies, the companies need to develop an awareness of that.
- 44:25And I had brought, yes, the examples of the big companies around the world that don't even see AI and climate together yet
- 44:31The companies themselves need to look in new directions.
- 44:33And then, of course, at the end of the day, the question is: What can we do about political
- 44:41framework conditions to create in order to support the processes, and
- 44:46what we are doing at UBA in terms of the software issue in terms of
- 44:51...
- 44:55Is that we develop heuristics to make data centers comparable with each other, so you create transparency
- 45:03and by creating transparency, you also create competition. When you have created such transparency
- 45:08you can then also think about energy efficiency standards. We can send companies on certain paths, so to speak.
- 45:15in order to then get a corresponding orientation here.
- 45:17And then I found the point Mr. Rohleder, which you have addressed very important, about which of course in our house also
- 45:22a lot of thought is being given to it.
- 45:23What are the monetary incentives to make sure that we're using the technologies in the right direction, and that's where I completely underscore
- 45:29the point that they made.
- 45:30If we enacted tax reform that adequately taxed resources and was based on taxing the labor
- 45:39side reduced, then of course we would get a corresponding direction of technological development, a use of these
- 45:44technological potentials so what we're doing at our UBA is we're trying to make the regulatory and the standard
- 45:51oriented instruments that we can use to actually mobilize the potentials that we agree on
- 45:56Can through appropriate frameworks.
- 46:00Mr. Rohleder, what would you like to see?
- 46:03Glad to follow up on the last point.
- 46:07I think it is quite difficult.
- 46:10There are studies, ecological rucksack of a yogurt-.
- 46:13Cup, that's been researched, that was hard enough.
- 46:16Or
- 46:16what are the most environmentally and resource friendly milk packaging?
- 46:19But now they're trying to actually calculate the environmental impact of software.
- 46:24I think it's important to create as much transparency as possible and generate strong price signals, and when they create transparency
- 46:31have, that is, as a commercial customer, as an administration, as a residential consumer, I know what costs are
- 46:37what consequential costs are generated
- 46:38the use of a product of a solution, a software.
- 46:41I know that, then I know what does it cost me in the sense what does it cost me for energy or what does it cost me for disposal
- 46:49And then I behave opportunistically ecologically reasonable and what is missing is the transparency we don't have.
- 46:56And what is lost by too much intervention in the market is authentic price signals.
- 47:04So I share that, I'm not in favor of as fine a regulation as possible, I'm in favor of as much as possible
- 47:11transparent.
- 47:12We need transparency on the side of the polluters, have talked about data centers, where we are at the moment at all
- 47:17don't have an overview of what the efficiency standards are across the market, that's where we need transparency, because then we need
- 47:22we need clear price signals.
- 47:23We should not make the mistake now in this sector that we made when we invented the circular economy. At
- 47:28the invention of the circular economy, we started the waste management sector.
- 47:32Have built a very expensive waste disposal and recycling system, while the mountains of waste in front and the material flows further
- 47:39have grown. So instead of starting at the front and setting the price signals there, we've started from the back.
- 47:45So we should see that we develop lean regulatory systems, but so far we have a high level of non-transparency.
- 47:51in these markets,
- 47:52that we're talking about and we need to eliminate.
- 47:56If I times this problem, if we say to our young people: here think please in the development of software and
- 48:01IT system also this issue of energy consumption with, they actually have no real chance to see what they do
- 48:11have to or what's good and what's bad?
- 48:14That's a very big problem.
- 48:15Of course software on hardware, operating systems, the technology is right on top of it, then it runs and that abstracting
- 48:22from what's under there. Do you see any chances there with any labs with any approaches?
- 48:30We also did yesterday with, coming up later as a speaker from VMWare also with the virtual machines where you might be
- 48:39then also such things can test, that the developers can really try hands-on and somehow also structured say:
- 48:49yes, that's with these two ways of doing something, the better one to achieve efficiency in terms of energy demand.
- 48:57We're doing studies right now where we're looking at whether there can be metrics, heuristics that we can use to guide together
- 49:03CAN.
- 49:04You can be sure, there is not something given, which is based on a study of the UBA, but at the end of the day
- 49:09we want to throw a stone in the water to be able to think about this question systematically so that companies can
- 49:15or developers, so enterprise level and the developers level have any orientation at all in which they can
- 49:21can align.
- 49:23And that is, after all, the basis for subsequently making good corporate decisions good investment decisions. For
- 49:28who give another example: We are
- 49:30For 2-3 years in the very structured dialogue with the industry-
- 49:324.0 platform and have tried to understand where the disruptive potentials are via use cases?
- 49:38And here's the emphasis again.
- 49:41What's important is that the companies themselves start looking this way, so the industry-.
- 49:444.0 platform did not have sustainability and climate neutrality on the screen at all in the first years of its existence, the
- 49:50was supposed to be a waste product, but digitization doesn't have climate neutrality as a waste product, you have to have climate
- 49:56Neutrality and energy perspective as part of the business model.
- 50:00These perspective changes, they are important, they can come from the companies themselves, there has been a change now
- 50:05there has been, that's very good.
- 50:07But of course, they can also be supported by policy accordingly by energy standards, by CO2 prices and so forth
- 50:12can be supported.
- 50:13And that interaction, we need that now. Now I have described a little bit our needs
- 50:17in the development of IT systems, then our colleagues from the GFZ are in the use of these IT systems.
- 50:25So you can't ask them to think about whether this model is more profitable this way or that way, but
- 50:32they must be able to rely on the fact that these things that are made available to them also have a good balance sheet
- 50:42How can you help with that?
- 50:43Because so asking the GFZ to care... they are fully challenged to develop the models in the process
- 50:52and to verify now down below to take care of the energy efficiency of the data centers,
- 50:57I think that would be overkill. If I can just say something about that, it would be a misconception to think that we have a lot of commercial
- 51:06software. Then it would hit exactly that problem, with commercial software that is used operationally
- 51:13That's where we have to rely on others. All the things that I presented earlier,
- 51:16But are basically based on software that is developed within the community, so partly in our group
- 51:22but also in cooperation with international colleagues and there it is of course even more difficult to create a standard,
- 51:30because these models are always in flux, they always have to be adapted and how to introduce a standard is not clear.
- 51:37to me is a mystery, especially if you also demand this from your doctoral students, who are only paid for their work.
- 51:43what comes out and not how it comes out and you need an international solution.
- 51:51What would certainly be a completely wrong perspective would be to say the end users now for now , because you use
- 51:58components,
- 51:58You use software, so now to impose that on the end consumer and end user, the problem of carbon neutrality
- 52:06at the end of the chain, so to speak, is complete nonsense.
- 52:10So if we look at that, if we look at that sector as a whole, so the examples that they brought show how important
- 52:15it is that we harness the potential of AI, machine learning in that context so that we can get better at understanding
- 52:21of the earth systems and the climate systems in the interaction with the social system, so we should be
- 52:27absolutely continue there, because they asked: Is it worth it? Is it worth it?
- 52:31My answer would be: of course it's useful. But we need a framework for the whole sector.
- 52:38Are three core elements central, the first is: so that the data centers that are at the beginning of the of the data processing.
- 52:45so that the data centers can become carbon neutral,
- 52:47first of all, it is important that we are dealing with 100% renewables, that is the basis that the energy,
- 52:53that is consumed is also carbon neutral. that the first point. the second point.
- 52:57Franziska Brantner had also rightly addressed that.
- 52:59Energy efficiency remains an important point, because we have such high requirements for the expansion of renewables, if
- 53:06they think about all the sector coupling potentials, that it's not arbitrary how much electricity we use, so
- 53:12in addition to the renewable dimension towards 100, we need to continue to have energy efficiency and in data centers we have seen
- 53:17we don't even have an overview of how much energy is being consumed there. The data centers have, that partly still themselves
- 53:22not even developed for themselves.
- 53:23Energy efficiency, there you can work with standards. Comes a 3rd element to that, if you look at the whole sector and
- 53:29the data centers first of all, we also have a high resource consumption in the area of
- 53:35digital innovations, and that's why circularity and circular economy is of great importance, so that we can get through
- 53:42the efficiency potentials that we tap into, in terms of energy, we don't subsequently have rebound effects via the increased
- 53:48resource consumption, which in turn leads to energy consumption, so renewable energy, energy efficiency, and circuli-
- 53:55tat in terms of resources that's the guiding principle that we should be moving towards. maybe once I can go to the first one
- 54:01point briefly, because of course that is indeed one of the biggest challenges for the industry.
- 54:06We all know that at the moment there are not available these renewables to the extent.
- 54:11Right now I think it's 42%.
- 54:13about less than half of the electricity share is just renewables.
- 54:17Even if we expand that to 80% in the next few years, that just doesn't run in parallel with the targets that the legislature is setting
- 54:24to the ICT industry and also to the data center operators, namely to be climate neutral by 2030 according to the Green Deal.
- 54:31completely.
- 54:32The federal government says in its coalition agreement even new data centers must be operated climate neutral from 2027/28 already
- 54:41will be.
- 54:43And so I'm wondering how that's going to work then, if we're going to be using renewables particularly in the short
- 54:49period until 2027/2028, we can't even expand as much as we need to for the required consumption of such renewables.
- 54:59Energies by the data center industry will require.
- 55:02So, we have a tradeoff there somewhere, and I'm curious how we're going to resolve that first of all, we need to
- 55:08solve it in such a way that at the same time we ensure the competitiveness of the data center industry, of the digital infrastructure
- 55:15overall, the business models, the innovations that we need to continue to develop in order to remain competitive, in the eye
- 55:21and not reduce ourselves too one-sidedly only to the achievement of such goals and completely disregard what is otherwise
- 55:29is still happening in competition in this industry, so that's a big challenge.
- 55:34My response to that would be, we have climate targets, and I hope we have a consensus there, because if
- 55:42we don't submit those climate targets,
- 55:43That's what they've shown,
- 55:44After all, I come from the social and sociological sciences.
- 55:47Climate science, if we don't meet these climate targets, we're going to get into really rough waters.
- 55:51That's why we have these challenging target systems that we're working hard on now and that's where we have to take responsibility now from the
- 55:58perspective of different actors and that a responsibility lies with whom the framework conditions make
- 56:03I have just said some of the things that would be necessary, in which direction we have to go there, and while that is happening
- 56:08But the companies but also public institutions have to,
- 56:11I'll say something about my own institution in a minute, we also have to get going, while the framework conditions are
- 56:15are still emerging, so to speak.
- 56:16That has to run in parallel.
- 56:18You should not wait as a company.
- 56:20I think we have discussed Mr. Rohleder a time or two.
- 56:24They should not wait as a company until the regulations are there that push them in the certain direction
- 56:29but they can, after all, approach things on their own initiative and in the Industry 4.0 platform we have this
- 56:35discussion now from the corporate perspective, they are taking that on board, they are trying to make that part of their business models
- 56:40to make.
- 56:41When I just said in my presentation only a small percentage of large companies are bringing AI digitization
- 56:47with climate neutrality in their own companies so far at all together, then there's still a lot of
- 56:52Scope to go ahead and run things.
- 56:54So, we haven't reached an optimal standard in the companies already and we have to, that's a little bit more
- 56:59Finetune through incentive structures, but we have to develop incentive structures and in parallel, the companies must
- 57:04part of their business model, and all the data shows us there's still a lot of room to go up. so I don't
- 57:09just finger pointing.
- 57:10We want to build a climate neutral, public administration, build climate neutral research and that's where we work in all
- 57:16their institutions at the universities and also at the Federal Environment Agency on strategies on how we do that.
- 57:21And it's a helpful process here.
- 57:22I don't know how that works for you at the university here.
- 57:25At UBA, we have identified the 5-6 areas where our resource consumptions and energy consumptions are
- 57:30in particular arise and have now developed roadmaps,
- 57:33How we're going to get down there.
- 57:34If you don't look at it there, if you don't create the transparency, nothing happens, then you are in the routines
- 57:39of procurement, so to speak, we have to take our different responsibilities on these different
- 57:45levels. Gentlemen with an eye on the clock, although there is still a lot to talk about, I would like to conclude this first part of our
- 57:53Conference, problem description would like to conclude.
- 57:58Mr. Messner, Mr. Süme, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Rohleder, thank you very much for your inputs and the discussion.
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About this video
Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner has been President of the German Federal Environment Agency since 2020. Previously, he was Director of the United Nations Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in Bonn and Vice-Director of the United Nations University (UNU). Prior to becoming Director of UNU-EHS in October 2018, Prof. Messner was Director of the German Development Institute from 2003-2018. Prof. Messner is an internationally recognized expert on globalization/global governance, transformation pathways to sustainability, decarbonization of the global economy, sustainability and digital transformation, and international cooperation and social change.
Bernhard Rohleder (born 1965) helped launch Bitkom e.V. at the end of 1999 and has been the association's Chief Executive Officer ever since. Rohleder is a member of the advisory board of the German Institute for Trust and Security on the Internet (Divsi) and of the jury for the "Made in.de" start-up prize. Among other things, he represents the industry on the relevant committees of the Federation of German Industries (BDI). In the 17th legislative period, Rohleder was a member of the German Bundestag's Enquête Commission on the Internet and Digital Society. Rohleder studied political science from 1987, first at Saarland University and later at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris, where he graduated in 1991. He received his doctorate (Dr. rer. pol.) from Freie Universität Berlin. Rohleder is married, has one child and lives in Berlin.
Prof. Dr. Maik Thomas has been W3 Professor for Modeling Fluid Dynamics in the Earth System at Freie Universität Berlin since 2013 and Head of the GFZ Section: "Earth System Modeling" at Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam since 2007. He received his diploma in oceanography from the Department of Geosciences in Hamburg, and his PhD, which he completed summa cum laude. His main research areas include the numerical simulation of spatio-temporally variable mass redistributions in the Earth system, taking into account consistent mass, momentum, and energy fluxes, especially between atmosphere, ocean, and continental hydrosphere.
Oliver Süme has been Chairman of the Board of eco - Verband der Internetwirtschaft e.V. since 2017. Previously, he had been Vice Chairman of the association's Executive Board since 2000 and was responsible for the Policy & Law department. From 2013 to 2018, Süme was also President of the world's largest provider association, EuroISPA, based in Brussels. He has been a lawyer since 1997 and is a partner in the international law firm Fieldfisher in Hamburg. Süme advises companies in the Internet and IT sectors, and life science companies in particular, on data protection law. He is a specialist attorney for IT law and a member of the IT law committee of the Hanseatic Bar Association. Süme is also co-founder of Hamburg Top-Level-Domain GmbH (registry for the domain extension ".hamburg").