4.4.4.7 Strategic interventions 

Digital technologies, devices and applications have the potential to support decarbonisation (Blanco et al., 2022) and promote PTPs in all sectors and countries. Yet, this enabling role does not arise independently. Strategic interventions can ensure that digitalisation becomes an enabler for, rather than a barrier to, sustainable change. Importantly, two types of strategies and policies are relevant in this respect. On the one hand, framework policies need to ensure the social steering of digitalisation so that its agenda is aligned with that of climate mitigation and more broadly to sustainable development. Second, specific policies need to be tailored to respond to heterogenous challenges across sectors as well as within and across countries. A specific challenge common across many sectors is efficiency-induced scale and rebound effects that increase overall levels of consumption if digitalisation makes accessing goods and services cheaper, easier, quicker or more convenient. Such scale and rebound effects would need to be recognised and appropriately dealt with in comprehensive climate policy packages. 

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