It's time for the first green industrial revolution

The author contends that piecemeal climate action is insufficient and proposes a triple revolution in economies, industries, and connectivity to address the climate crisis. By leveraging Industry 4.0 and 5G, the author predicts a productivity jump of 30-35% starting around 2028, which would offset the cost of greening cities. Specific examples include reducing agricultural water use in Algeria and cutting CO2 emissions in mining and manufacturing through digitalization and 3D printing.

• The author argues that current climate efforts are fragmented, noting that while over 200 cities have emissions-reduction plans, a "piecemeal approach is not sufficient" to address global crises.
• Digitalization and Industry 4.0 are predicted to trigger a productivity increase of 30% to 35% beginning around 2028 in the US, followed by China and India, which would provide trillions of dollars to the global economy and offset the estimated cost of greening cities (approximately 2% of global GDP).
• The Fourth Industrial Revolution can significantly reduce waste and emissions across physical industries: in agriculture, machine learning and probes helped a farmer in Algeria reduce water consumption by 40% per line; in mining, it could unlock $425 billion in value and reduce CO2 emissions by 610 million tons by 2025; and in manufacturing, 3D printing alone could cut CO2 emissions by up to 525.5 megatonnes by 2025.
• 5G technology is described as "natively green" because its "lean carrier" feature can reduce energy consumption per bit by up to 60%, while potentially creating a $1 trillion market for operators providing bespoke services to businesses.

APA

Suri, R. (2020). It's time for the first green industrial revolution. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/its-time-for-the-first-green-industrial-revolution/

Chicago

Suri, Rajeev. It's time for the first green industrial revolution. World Economic Forum, 2020. https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/its-time-for-the-first-green-industrial-revolution/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Suri |first1=Rajeev |title=It's time for the first green industrial revolution |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=17 January 2020 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/its-time-for-the-first-green-industrial-revolution/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{suri2020its, author = {Suri, Rajeev}, title = {{It's time for the first green industrial revolution}}, publisher = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2020}, month = jan, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/its-time-for-the-first-green-industrial-revolution/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }