Steffen Lange

Researcher at Institute for Ecological Economy Research
Affiliated scholar of the Resource Economics Group at the Humboldt University Berlin
Associated researcher at the Department of Social-Ecological Transformation at the Technical University Berlin
Steffen Lange is an economist who combines quantitative and qualitative empirical research with theoretical and conceptual methods to address sustainability issues. His research focuses on digital transformation, the relationship between economic growth and environmental throughput, rebound effects and concepts for sustainable economies. He is a researcher at the Institute for Ecological Economy Research, affiliated scholar of the Resource Economics Group at the Humboldt University Berlin and associated researcher at the Department of Social-Ecological Transformation at the Technical University Berlin. Steffen Lange studied economics in Maastricht, Santiago de Chile and Göttingen and received his doctorate from the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Hamburg.

Besides publications in international research journals, he is the author of the books "Macroeconomics Without Growth: Sustainable Economies in Neoclassical, Keynesian and Marxian Theories" (Metropolis) and "Smart Green World? Making Digitalization Work for Sustainability" (Routledge).
Talk: Digitalization and energy consumption: does ICT reduce energy demand?
Decarbonization is at the forefront of the global policy agenda, with energy consumption accounting for some 40 percent of global carbon emissions. Digitalization is an energy-intensive process that is currently transforming many sectors of the global economy. However, its impacts on sustainability remain rather ambiguous. On the one hand, digitalization can greatly improve the energy efficiency of many other processes, while drawing increasingly on renewable sources of energy. On the other hand, digitalization may lead to an overall expansion in economic activities and associated energy consumption.

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