Lara Connaughton. Image: Isabel de Oliveira
Lara Connaughton discusses the importance of driving the conversation around innovation and a sustainable future at a national and international level.
Lara Connaughton said she always felt strongly about current affairs and public policy growing up in her native Galway. She studied economics and business in Trinity College Dublin and became the first Irish recipient of the prestigious Schwarzman Scholarship, which aims to foster a deeper understanding of China and promote international relations.
Studying global affairs at Tsinghua University, Beijing, Connaughton focused on technology and public policy. Not long after graduating, she moved to Luxembourg to work at the European Court of Auditors. Now, she is the sustainability lead for the international unit at ComReg, Ireland’s agency for communications regulation.
“Our team works closely with our European colleagues through the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), the Independent Regulators Group (IRG) and with international counterparts through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),” she told SiliconRepublic.com
Connaughton’s team works closely with European colleagues, including those at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and briefs the agency’s commissioners –Helen Dixon, Robert Mourik and Garrett Blaney.
“My role also covers environmental sustainability,” Connaughton tells SiliconRepublic.com, “which is a relatively new area for electronic communications regulation and a very interesting one at that.”
A whole new world
For Connaughton, it is an exciting time to be working at the intersection of comms regulation and sustainability, as truly we are only at the beginning of a journey that will enable electronic networks to aid other sectors, while minimising their own environmental footprint.
She explained that there are two lenses through which comms regulation and environmental sustainability can be viewed.
“The first being adaptation, where communications networks must be resilient in the face of extreme weather events and environmental degradation caused by climate change.
“The second is mitigation – the aim of reducing the environmental impact of human activity, aspects of which are becoming increasingly digitalised in our society,” she said.
Connaughton noted the EU’s ‘twin transition’ approach, which is the idea that as society becomes increasingly digitalised, it will simultaneously become more environmentally sustainable.
While she believes this is a worthy goal, she explained it is important that as a society we continue to discuss the measures that will bring us to a more sustainable future, as it is not guaranteed that as we advance, we will secure eco-friendly ways to support the transition.
“The energy and resource demands required to fuel the digital economy require policies and actions to ensure that the proliferation of ICT across sectors does not rely on materials and processes which will continue to damage the planet.
“The environmental impact of ‘digital’ including emissions, raw materials and waste is predicted to continue to increase due to the growing use of connected and wearable devices, the resources required to run data centres, AI applications and the digitalisation of existing analogue products and services. Therefore, it is crucial that we discuss innovation and a sustainable future at a national and international level.”
What does the future hold?
With Ireland in mind, Connaughton is of the opinion that the creation of a sustainable future is not the sole responsibility of any one organisation, rather, it demands an all-hands approach.
“From working in this sector for the last number of years, it is clear to me that in order to make the ‘twin transition’ a reality, thought leadership is needed from a policy/legislative perspective, in addition to measurable and transparent environmental action from industry.”
The sector, she said, has diversified significantly from the early days in which comms regulation was traditionally about telecoms (“ducts and poles”) and postal services. Now, it is increasingly about digital infrastructure that we use everyday with our laptops, smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices.
“Typically, these regulators were staffed by engineers, economists and lawyers – the ‘digital’ dimension of future responsibilities now means that data scientists, cybersecurity experts, geospatial analysts and many other disciplines will be required to complement existing regulatory competences.”
She believes that more can be done to encourage people from all walks of life to engage in the conversation around digital regulation and sustainability, as similar to the issues around the climate crisis, it is a collective problem, spanning multiple sectors and regulators.
She hopes that in the future, green, climate and environmental sustainability will not be viewed as themes that can be siloed due to the misconception that they are niche topics.
“Environmental sustainability needs to be baked into policy discussions and strategies, for all stakeholders in the digital ecosystem.”
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