Session 4.4: Digitalization, Environment, and People

The intelligent energy transition must ultimately serve people—expanding opportunity, improving environmental quality, creating green employment, and ensuring that digital innovation reaches those who have historically been left behind. This session examines the social and environmental dimensions of digitalization in energy systems across a range of contexts.

Presenters will discuss data-driven scenario analysis of two- and three-wheeler electrification in one of Asia's most air-polluted cities, demonstrating how publicly available data can inform practical pathways for the vehicle segments most responsible for urban emissions; how digital technologies, cross-border e-commerce, and vocational education are being integrated to create green employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people in China's energy transition; and how integrating AI-enabled capacities with community-led clean energy systems—particularly through women's Self-Help Groups and Solar Didis—can reposition women as digital changemakers and strengthen last-mile energy delivery across South Asia.