"Innovations and rapid technology development are the basis for the climate transition"

Sustainability
IT&Telekomföretagen and Innovationsföretagen invited to a webinar on the theme of sustainability, focusing on how tech and innovation contribute to solutions to some of the major challenges of our time. During the webinar, the important work of the industry was discussed and how we together can create a positive development and become a catalyst for a sustainable transition of the whole society and its development.

- Sustainability, tech and innovation are a given combination that together create magic here today but it is also what creates the future and makes it sustainable for future generations. Companies in the tech and innovation sectors have an important role to play for society and business as a whole. We need to be leaders in this area for the climate transition, but also for our competitiveness, jobs, prosperity and a good quality of life," said Åsa Zetterberg, Director General of IT&Telecom companies during the webinar.

The business community leads the way
Svante Axelsson, national coordinator for Fossil Free Sweden, participated and talked about the national initiative to make Sweden the world's first fossil-free welfare country. There is also a lot of pressure on the climate issue in the EU and the ambition is to make the EU the world's first climate-neutral region. Svante highlighted the importance of the business community taking the lead and showing that they are prepared to take responsibility and increase their competitiveness:

- It is with the help of the strong position of the business community that politicians dare to take the important decisions. Together, Sweden can show the world the way forward. The key is that we can create increased competitiveness by acting climate smart, says Svante Axelsson.

Fossil-free development builds competitiveness
Svante's message was that we need to show that we are building competitiveness with fossil-free development, where both the willingness to pay and the value development exist. He pointed out how competitiveness is based on being at the forefront of technological development and he likened digitalization to an efficiency revolution. There is great potential in the use of data to reduce costs and climate impact in the transport sector and in agriculture, for example.

- "Innovation is the basis for meeting the climate challenge and we need an enormously rapid development of technology if the planet is to keep the temperature increase below two degrees," says Svante Axelsson.

Focus on the future
During the webinar, representatives from Sweco, Knowit and Telia discussed the industries' work to contribute to sustainable societal development and what policy can do to create better conditions for such work. In addition, Frida Faxborn, business policy expert at IT&Telecom companies and Anders Persson, business policy manager at Innovation Companies, talked about the organizations' focus and work ahead in the field of sustainability.

- There is a sense of hope and inspiration where opportunities and solutions exist but also a spark of frustration and that more needs and can be done. We are looking at what we as organizations can do further and will intensify our work in close dialogue with our member companies, partners and others," says Åsa Zetterberg.

Watch the webinar in full here: