• search hit 4 of 79
Back to Result List

Climate Breakdown as a Systemic Risk in the Digital Services Act

  • Digital technologies have substantial environmental impacts. The EU’s 2022 Digital Services Act (DSA) requires the largest platforms and search engines to regularly assess “systemic risks” to various social interests – including public health, physical wellbeing, security, and fundamental rights – and to reasonably and proportionately mitigate these risks. Climate change and other escalating environmental crises severely threaten these interests. Accordingly, this policy brief argues that the DSA requires these companies to take reasonable measures to reduce their environmental impacts. This should notably include following best practices to minimise energy and water usage, including “sustainability by design” obligations to pursue less energy- and resource-intensive technologies, design choices, and business practices wherever possible. It should also include measures addressing platforms’ indirect environmental impacts, such as the facilitation of environmentally-damaging behaviour by third-party businesses. Since the DSA’s risk mitigation obligations apply specifically to the largest platforms – which exercise significant influence over broader technological and commercial ecosystems – regulatory pressure on these companies to take such measures could have outsized environmental benefits. This policy brief by Rachel Griffin, PhD candidate at Sciences Po Law School, offers a legal analysis of the DSA’s relevance to environmental policy and explains why environmental risks are within its scope. It then outlines appropriate measures to mitigate platforms’ direct and indirect environmental impacts. It concludes with recommendations for platform companies, regulators, and civil society on how to realise the Digital Services Act’s potential to help secure a more sustainable tech industry.

Download full text files

Export metadata

Additional Services

Share in Twitter Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Document Type:Working Paper
Language:English
Author(s):Rachel Griffin
Publication year:2023
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
Number pages:18
Related URL:https://www.hertie-school.org/en/news/detail/content/climate-breakdown-as-a-systemic-risk-in-the-digital-services-act
DOI:https://doi.org/10.48462/opus4-5075
Release Date:2023/09/18
Hertie School Research:Centre for Digital Governance
Licence of document (German):Creative Commons - CC BY - 4.0 International
Verstanden ✔
Diese Webseite verwendet technisch erforderliche Session-Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie diesem zu. Unsere Datenschutzerklärung finden Sie hier.