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Sustainable Digital Sovereignty? Environmental Impact of EU Tech Strategies

Celeste, Edoardo orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-1984-4142 and Victorio, Alba Perez (2025) Sustainable Digital Sovereignty? Environmental Impact of EU Tech Strategies. In: Digital Sovereignty and the Green Transition EU Challenges in Times of War and Energy Crisis. Bloomsbury Publishing, Oxford, pp. 95-114. ISBN 9781509983629

Abstract
This chapter aims to examine the environmental impact of EU technological strategies, ultimately challenging the idea that the Union is concretely envisaging a really sustainable form of digital sovereignty, in particular, by neglecting the consequences of digital policies beyond its borders. We start by tracing the genealogy of the digitalisation and green strategy in the EU, explaining to what extent they are currently considered as two ‘twin’ policies (II). We then focus on EU technology strategies, analysing how digital sovereignty has recently become a guiding principle in the context of a broader EU quest for strategic autonomy from third countries. Despite not being univocally defined, we illustrate how digital sovereignty strategies concretely take a ‘centripetal’ or a ‘centrifugal’ approach (III). The core contribution of our chapter then lies in the analysis of the environmental impact of EU technological policies as oriented by the EU objective of achieving a status of digital sovereignty. We will identify the generation of a rebound effect as the symptom of a ‘digital insularity’ attitude, where the EU still conceives the digital and green transitions as two siloed policies in terms of effects. We will finally introduce the concept of ‘environmental sovereignism’ to denote the adoption of a ‘Europe first’ attitude in setting twin transition strategies, which de facto neglects the impact of EU policies beyond its borders (IV). The last section will conclude presenting the theoretical alternative of starting to pursue a more digitally ‘sober’ approach (V).
Metadata
Item Type:Book Section
Refereed:Yes
Subjects:Social Sciences > International relations
Social Sciences > Law
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science
DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Law and Government
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing
Official URL:https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/digital-sovereignty-...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:31623
Deposited On:13 Oct 2025 09:50 by Vidatum Academic . Last Modified 13 Oct 2025 09:50
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