About ESCAP

  • ESCAP, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, fosters cooperation between its 53 member states and nine associate members to find sustainable solutions to societal challenges.
  • ESCAP is one of the UN’s five regional commissions.
  • The ESCAP Secretariat supports inclusive, resilient and sustainable development in the region by generating action-oriented knowledge and providing technical assistance and capacity-building. This work supports national development goals, regional agreements and the implementation of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

About the analytical tool

The analytical tool developed by Professor Rony Medaglia supports policy-makers in making informed decisions on digital solutions for climate action and adaptation goals. 

The tool guides policy-makers through three steps, with each step feeding into the next:  

  • Describing the country’s performance in digital transformation and, in parallel, the progress made on climate change mitigation and adaptation. What is the starting point? 
  • Explaining the relationship between digital transformation and performance on climate mitigation and adaptation. Is there a connection between the country’s digital development and its current ability to meet climate goals?  
  • Taking action through initiatives based on the data collected and analysed in the descriptive and explanatory phases. What kind of change do policy-makers want to see in society? How can they support the necessary capacity-building within digital infrastructure, public authorities, the business community and the natural ecosystem?  

CBS research: digital tools to address climate change and support adaptation goals

Digital solutions can help cut greenhouse gas emissions and protect citizens from climate change. But how do policy-makers decide what creates the most impact? CBS professor has developed an analytical tool to support policy-making – something the UN sees great potential in.

05/12/2025

In 2023, an invitation landed on Professor Rony Medaglia’s desk at Copenhagen Business School:  

“If we want to create a sustainable future, we need your help to understand the potential and limitations of digital tools, including artificial intelligence, so we can give policy-makers meaningful guidance.” 

The letter came from ESCAP, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, which consists of 53 member states and nine associate members.  

Rony Medaglia conducts research on digitalisation in the public sector, so this was an invitation he could not turn down. He has often seen the wheel reinvented and mistakes repeated policy-making. 

“The biggest motivator for me is knowing that my academic input to political decision-making actually makes a difference in society,” he says. 

Originally from Italy, Rony Medaglia has always wanted to work with stakeholders around academia.  17 years ago, the opportunity of studying digitalisation in the already highly digitalised Danish society was the main reason he accepted a position at CBS. 

Since then, he has worked with policy-makers in Denmark, the EU and United Nations.  


Rony Medaglia

“From a societal point of view, I think there is an urge to bring a lot of the very valuable knowledge that is developed in academia about how digital tools can have an effect on sustainability closer to the need for solutions that is emerging.  This was definitely the case with ESCAP,” he explains.  

Balancing digital innovation and environmental sustainability in politics

According to ESCAP, there is an immense need for sustainable solutions in the Asia-Pacific region, just as there is in the rest of the world. The region is responsible for more than half of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. It is also highly vulnerable to the consequences of the climate crisis, particularly when it comes to more extreme weather events and other disasters.  

Action is needed, and it became Rony Medaglia’s job to identify how governments can encourage and support the development, replication and scaling of digital innovations that benefit both the environment and people. 

Policy-makers face a major dilemma in how to balance digital innovation with environmental sustainability. AI, for instance, can help predict and reduce urban air pollution, but AI systems also require energy-intensive data centres that emit large amounts of CO₂. Similarly, smart sensors and IoT devices (Internet of Things) can promote a circular economy, but if not disposed of properly, they contribute to growing e-waste and toxic landfills. The challenge is to find ways to maximise the environmental benefits of technology while minimising hidden costs. 

Policy-makers guided step by step

Policy-makers’ input on these challenges was published in the report Seizing the Opportunity: Digital Innovation for a Sustainable Future (2024). The collaboration led to further initiatives aimed at developing digitalisation policies that support climate mitigation and adaptation.  

This time, Rony Medaglia took his scope all the way into the governments’ offices and contributed to the preparation of the report Digital Innovation for Smarter Climate Action: Asia-Pacific Digital Transformation Report 2024, where he designed a tool to assist policy-makers make informed decisions about digital development. The tool was published as a working paper titled Measuring the Impacts of Digital Transformation on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation.  

The paper guides policy-makers through the process of collecting and analysing data and then acting on that data by formulating policies on how digitalisation can help reduce a country’s greenhouse gas emissions and protect its citizens from the effects of climate change.   

UN: We see great potential

“The reports are new, and the tool still needs further refinement once policy-makers have tested it. But there is no doubt that Rony Medaglia’s work is of great value to policy-makers,” says Tiziana Bonapace, Director of Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division at ESCAP.  

“We see significant potential in this tool and look forward to further engagement in its development,” she states about the impact of the paper and its influence on the digital transition. 

“Policy-makers gain insight into the opportunities – such as resource optimisation and enhanced climate resilience – which ultimately help steer the development of digital solutions that can more effectively address climate change,” she says. 

She believes the recommendations in the paper offer policy-makers practical ways to integrate the digital transformation into national climate policies, for instance through open data strategies and cross-sector collaboration.  

“This insight can support more strategic and data-driven decision-making in climate planning,” says Tiziana Bonapace.

The page was last edited by: Sekretariat for Ledelse og Kommunikation // 05/12/2025