IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2020 - 26

the risks, standards and frameworks
are urgently needed to ensure that
algorithms governing society are
transparent, ethical, and equitable,
both in how they are developed and
how they are used.

Research Questions
■■

■■

■■

■■

■■

Under what social and political
conditions does the expansion
of informational, collaborative,
and anticipatory governance
systems lead to inclusive sus-
tainability outcomes? How can
we leverage big data, IoT, AI,
and other digital technologies
to enable and scale these new
governance structures and
overcome constraints such as
algorithmic bias and unequal
quality and coverage of data?
How can trust and accountabil-
ity be created in a world where
decisions are based on collec-
tive and artificial intelligence?
How can transparency in cli-
mate governance be enhanced
by emerging technologies? Will
enhanced transparency in GHG
emissions and reduction compli-
ance deliver environmental ben-
efits and citizen empowerment?
Where is the line between unprece-
dented transparency for account-
ability and surveillance for control?
What standards, policies, and
norms are needed to avoid cross-
ing that line?
Under what conditions does
measurement, reporting, and
verification (MRV) lead to inclu-
sive sustainability outcomes?
What institutional and political
constraints must be addressed
for MRV to be effective in dif-
ferent governance systems? How
can these be enabled and scaled
in the digital age?

Innovation Needs
■■

26

Develop a new tool box for cli-
mate governance that leverages

machine networks is essential for
governing society today, while reaping
the benefits of the power of these net-
works and minimizing the risks they
pose to society. Here we explore three
digitally empowered levers to influence
cognitive systems and accelerate and
expand sustainable actions.

the four digital disruptors to
make use of greater availabil-
ity of data, advances in AI, and
new approaches to access the
capacity and expertise of people
across networks of states, busi-
nesses, local governments, and
civil society.
■■ Foster polycentric governance
systems, leveraging unprecedent-
ed transparency, mass collabo-
ration, and intelligent systems,
to build complementary topdown and bottom-up approach-
es that reinforce, rather than
counteract each other at differ-
ent scales.
■■ Improve the ability to track
and monitor carbon and other
environment al goods and
services using big data and
remote sensors.
■■ Explore methods to integrate new
digital data streams - from satel-
lite imagery, digital sensors, and
crowdsourcing sites - to enable
more credible and legitimate MRV
systems that support inclusive
sustainability outcomes.

Nudging and Microtargeting
Human decisions are constrained
by a range of cognitive biases. For
example, we are biased towards
maintaining the status quo, priori-
tizing the present over the future,
preferring pre-existing beliefs over
new ideas, and avoiding losses over
securing equivalent gains [76]-[78].
To counteract or exploit these inher-
ent biases, political, commercial,
and public campaigns often use
"nudges," a technique that emerged
from behavioral economics [79].
Nudges influence behavior through
small changes in how choices are
presented, without altering the
range of choices. People tend to be
more susceptible to nudges than
attempts to persuade using rational
arguments or facts. People are also
more open to personalized messag-
es, especially when suffering from
information overload. Digital capabil-
ities have amplified the power and
reach of nudging and microtargeting
by personalizing influence at scale.
Nudging and microtargeting are now
embedded in the daily lives of much
of humanity, influencing behaviors
and social norms [80]. It is incumbent
on society to develop mechanisms
to regulate digital microtargeting
and nudging to prevent malicious, or
unethical manipulation [81], and to
advance democratically determined
values, such as reducing GHG emis-
sions, by advancing low-carbon and
climate resilient choices [76], [79].

Cognitive Systems
Psychologists and economists have
shown that human cognitive sys-
tems, and thus human behaviors,
influence and are influenced by
social and cultural norms [69], [70].
In the hyperconnected digital age,
people's interactions are embed-
ded in machine systems. Machines,
powered by big data and AI, increas-
ingly mediate human cognition and
social, cultural, economic, and
political interactions [71]-[73]. As a
result, human cognition and human
behaviors are now shaped by linked
human-machine networks [74].
Within these networks, digital dis-
ruptors are already shaping social
norms in ways that could have signifi-
cant implications for the climate and
social equity [21], [23], [75]. Under-
standing the behavior of humanIEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

Collective Stories
Narratives define our individual and
collective realities. Stories unite us
∕

JUNE 2020
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2020

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