Industry 4.0 and the Promise WILL IT BE ENOUGH?

become dependent on using fossil fuels.

With the invention and implementation of computers, large-scale manufacturing was realized, and the next period arrived with the speed of automated systems. This normalized the daily use of electronics and information technology. Today, we have something emerging and carrying—not just the advancements made by its ancestors—but also the accumulated burdens. Industry 4.0 is all about connectivity—it promises the use of smart factories defined by interconnected machines and intelligent robots.

Industry 4.0 will also incorporate big data, Internet of Things, and Artificial Intelligence. Companies and operations will be run by a network of computers, allowing predictive maintenance and processing of large data sets to meet immediate manufacturing needs. Successful businesses will also likely have to rethink their business models to leverage more technology. Industry 4.0 has remarkable potential to strive for sustainability, however, emerging in a society with cumulated burdens like climate change, this will likely remain challenging.

According to the World Economic Forum, some of the recent concerning global trends are growing socio-economic inequality, increasing environmental decline and climate change with regional risks to social instability, unemployment, resource depletion and natural catastrophes. For Industry 4.0 to be worth the “hype”, it must leverage its capability along with novel technologies to alleviate some of these trends.

The United Nations has already come up with the Sustainable Development Goals which are intended to help countries transform their economies while calling “action to end poverty and inequality, protect the planet” and “ensure that everyone enjoys the same access to health, justice and prosperity”. To ensure sustainability, Industry 4.0 will likely have to play part by changing the meaning of economic value creation—value will not be created in the expense of the environment and its people but rather conscientiously considering the needs and longevity of the planet and its inhabitants. Still, there are concerns about data security, loss of jobs due to robots and AI that will come with this age of technological advancement. But one of the greatest challenges that remains in the spotlight is the sustainability and how we are going to reverts the effects of climate change.

In 2015, world leaders formed the Paris Climate Agreement, having a common understanding that a 2.0°C global rise in temperatures would be devastating, they settled to stay under 1.5C. However, the global rise in temperatures has already reached 1.3°C and when 200 nations revisited the issue in Egypt, they remained committed to their 1.5°C promise despite the harsh critics. As we enter a new era, we will need more energy and material resources to sustain the level of connectivity that Industry