The Climate Crisis and the 4th Industrial Revolution are the two biggest challenges humanity is facing. Both the United Nations and the European Union have adopted the Agenda 2030 Strategies and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which together they consist the new development policy aimed at transforming the EU into a Fair, Inclusive, Smart, Green, Competitive Economy, in order to operate with zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The EU aims, especially through the Green Deal (recently announced as the top environmental, economic and social priority), to play a leading role in the global environmental governance.
At the same time, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in the broadest sense of the 4th Industrial Revolution (Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Machine Learning, 3D Printing, Blockchain, etc.), are the concussive recent development reshaping world production models, ways of governing, individual and social behaviors, environmental protection procedures and methods for dealing with Climate Crisis.
At the international scientific, economic and operational level, it has been accepted that the most important ally of societies, in order to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5oC, are the technological developments in Informatics and Communications, towards a “Green and Smart Development”.
To date, the two global challenges (Climate Crisis and ICT development) have not yet been combined and developed as the needs of our planet require.
Within the framework of the Postgraduate Program “Climate Crisis and Information and Communication Technologies” the four (4) most important factors of Climate Crisis have been selected as directions and distinct teaching objects,, in which, after the introductory lectures on the basics of each object, the emphasis is on the characteristics “Green and Smart”.
More specifically, the following 4 directions – teaching subjects, are analyzed:
- Energy Systems and Policies – Information and Communication Technologies
- Smart Cities and Communities – Smart State
- Digital – Smart Agriculture
- Digital Systems, Transportation, Supply Chain
The purpose of the interdisciplinary MSc in “Climate Crisis and Information and Communication Technologies” is to enhance and promote the scientific knowledge on key principles and applications of Information and Communication Technologies in the four fields of economic and social activities that are the main factors of GHG emissions (energy, cities, agriculture, transport). The application of modern technologies is the main tool with which societies will achieve the decarbonization of economies, the protection of biodiversity and ultimately the formation of a modern, sustainable, digital development model.
In this context, the graduates of the MSc are equipped with interdisciplinary expertise in Environmental and Circular Development and Information and Communication Technologies and can successfully staff public and private sector services and organizations, engage in self-employment, and pursue academic careers.