Digital Technologies and Distributed Registries for Sustainable Development

Association of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the Sustainable Development will make India a better tomorrow and help industries of almost every sector to construct a better planet. Much attention is currently required for the steadily emerging concept of Artificial Intelligence and its wide impact upon different sectors of the society. Also, need for evaluation of its impact upon sustainable development is the need of the hour because they are both positive and negative impacts. The categorization of all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was on the line of economic, social and environmental goals by United States in 2015. SDGs provide for the innovative and practical blueprint for understanding the positive and negative effects of AI. In the medium and long term, AI is projected to have an impact on global productivity, equality and inclusion, environmental outcomes, and a variety of other areas. AI’s reported potential consequences on sustainable development are both positive and negative. They’re also having an impact on global sustainability trends. As the AI revolution affects our world, it may announce a utopian future in which humans and machines coexist peacefully, or it may herald a nightmarish future filled with conflict, poverty, and pain. More immediately, would AI help us achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) or push us further down the road to more economic Uncertainty, environmental collapse, and societal upheaval turning out as the possible outcomes which is to be addressed as the need of the hour. The purpose of this article is also to answer these issues by examining the effects of AI-SDGs relationship and to look into the conceptual framework presented here which aids in the investigation as to which SDGs AI may be useful in attaining and which goals may be compromised as a result of increased AI use.

Sustainable development has three dimensions, economic, social and environmental. The three-fold dimension of sustainable development implies the consideration of the environmental issue that goes beyond mere protection of the environment since it cannot be considered separately from the economic-productive system and social needs. The circular economy operates along the same three dimensions. A central role in the successful implementation of the circular economy must necessarily be given to the enterprises. Artificial intelligence provides a powerful tool in the transition to a circular economy, acting as an instrument for innovation in the business model, by directing business activity towards sustainable capitalism, overcoming the model of capitalism aimed solely at profit.

Financial innovation has given great importance to sustainability. The Sustainable Finance Strategy represents one of the central points of the European agenda, and Fintech offers important opportunities in this field. However, some “valuable” Fintech instruments seem to not have been adequately considered. The reference is to Bitcoin and to the “crypto-industry”. The most common public belief about Bitcoin and sustainability is that Bitcoin is polluting the ecosystem. Immediately, the concept is extended to Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), to blockchain and to all related innovations. Notwithstanding this, some research shows that there is still some uncertainty on the precise amount of energy used by Bitcoin-related activities and on how to calculate it. The scope of this paper is to give some clarity on this uncertainly in order to show, on the one hand that DLT is not “polluting”, but that pollutions come from the way each miner decides to conduct their businesses. On the other hand, a DLT system can be considered sustainable thanks to its capacity to solve a various number of environmental problems “related” to how businesses are conducted.

The chapter is devoted to analyzing the situation with the attraction of private investments in the creative industries for the Sustainable Development Goals. At the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, the year 2021 was declared the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. The concept of the creative industry is based on the interaction of human creativity and ideas with intellectual property, knowledge, and technology. According to UNCTAD's Creative Economy Program, protection through Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) is linked to opportunities to attract investment in the arts. It is possible to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth, foster innovation, provide opportunities, benefits and empowerment for all and respect all human rights with the application of blockchain technology and the issuance of tokens. Blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have played an essential role in attracting funding to the creative industries. Tokenization in the arts and creative industries demonstrates a solution to the various challenges of Sustainable Development. The influx of investment has been linked to new technological opportunities and has also enabled additional funding or livelihoods for artists. NFTs have recently become a great sensation in the art market. Legal research has shown how NFTs are created and what rights investors can realize under smart contracts.

This article discusses the impact of United Nations (UN) conferences on environmental protection, specifically the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement (PCA) and its effects on sustainable technologies. Various regulations to fight against global warming have pushed for reform in several sectors, including economy, energy, agriculture, and education. This article analyses the changes in those sectors and introduces the European Green Deal as a climate action plan and the latest IPCC report on the state of the environment. The paper deduces that the new technologies implemented to reduce global pollution have positive results on the environment and the economy of the pioneer states, which are already positioned for the leadership of new market shares.

The climate agenda has recently gained new importance as global climate change threatens all of humanity. The regulation of green finance instruments needs to be improved to attract more money to fight global warming. To ensure investor confidence in green instruments, a common standard for them must be created. The European Union and Russia are forming a legal and regulatory framework to create national standards for green bonds. A comparative legal study of the EU and Russian draft laws on green finance has demonstrated similar approaches in the creation of regulatory rules. This article describes the prospects for green finance in the context of digitalisation. Based on a study of best practices (green asset wallet, digital green bonds, etc.), it is concluded that digital solutions for sustainable finance are currently still underdeveloped. However, in the future, their use will significantly increase investor confidence in green instruments and reduce costs, including through the digitalisation of the verification process.

The relationship between digitalisation, sustainability and resilience is fiercely debated. However, it is largely undisputed that digital technology is fundamentally capable of supporting the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and must do so. During the Corona pandemic, many people were dependent on digital applications to access education, work or medical care. Thus, fast internet is a basic prerequisite for social and economic participation. However, especially in rural regions, good internet connections are not commonly available. The article presents the strategy of Germany (as an example of a large EU Member State) to provide all citizens with access to fast internet. Access to fast internet is not only a measure of consumer protection but also serves significantly to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (especially SDG 3, 4, 8, 9).

On the basis of the Directive (EU) 2018/1972 (European Electronic Communication Code), the Member States set incentives for network expansion, for example by reducing investment costs. Necessary measures are taken by the responsible regulatory authorities. One trend is to “empower” consumers vis-à-vis telecommunications providers. On the one hand, this involves transparency about the providers available on the market and the quality of their services. A number of legal instruments are available for this purpose. On the other hand, the increased importance of fast internet access for individuals has led in Germany to an enforceable “right to fast internet”. In this respect, German telecommunications law goes beyond the European directive requirements and breaks new ground to achieve the SDGs.

The right to education is guaranteed in many international human rights documents. This right is especially important for children. Therefore, the States should protect, respect, and fulfil the children’s right to education. Nowadays, also the right to education is facing the rapid development of technology. The COVID-19 outbreak additionality (re)opened questions about how to fulfil this child’s right without discrimination or without widening the gap between children who have access to and use (good) digital environment and those without (good). In the article, particular emphasis will be given to the right to education in the digital especially from the present COVID-19 situation.

Privacy design and (global) regulation of new technologies is an emerging concern for businesses, governments, and especially for the legal field itself. This article tries to explore strategies for controlling communication and information flows on how to regulate them and avoid abuses and the breach of our basic fundamental rights, as such privacy. Even more, when we refer to Artificial Intelligences and how it can escape our control (and its legal capacity to adapt its own normativity). Especially when considering cross-border legal issues, technology is the desired factor, and perhaps the corporations leading such advances are becoming too big to be regulated. Thus, digital compliance emerges as a relevant tool for an autopoietic process of self-regulation, in addition to the creation and even enforcement of this new type of law, triggered by the advances of social responsibility: social media and the respective reputational damage arising from “digital cancellations” and other freshly new sanctions.

Electronic justice in Russia is part of the general trend of digitalization of public authorities. The present work reveals the main elements of electronic justice in Russia at the current stage. The paper examines trends and patterns in the development of electronic justice focusing on the needs of civil society and the business community. It also explores positive and controversial aspects of the introduction of digital technology in court. The study provides an overview of certain aspects of digital justice, requiring the state to ensure equal technological accessibility and elimination of digital inequality among participants of the judicial process. The research formulates the limits of the use of information technology in court, considering the technological accessibility to the electronic court. The present study forms a holistic view of the state of Russian electronic justice.