Box 4-3: Impact of car sharing

will account for only one third of total traffic. The penetration of new technologies, expected to take place in relation to all means of transport, will result in energy savings; the energy consumption and CO 2 emissions of all vehicles will drop by 40-50 percent by 2050 (Tricoire, 2019).

Box 4-3: Impact of car sharing

The essence of car sharing is that the, mostly electric, cars parked at various points in cities can be used by drivers after

an internet-based registration and booking. This helps reduce not only the costs related to the maintenance of the

vehicle (since a registration and monthly fee must be paid for the service, and hourly and kilometre charge for the use, which also includes the price of the fuel), but pollution as well. This represents a novel, personalised form of public transport, which can be used at any time of the day and a car can also be used by more people (Economist, 2016). The advantage of car sharing is that there will be fewer car owners and accidents; furthermore, it has a positive impact on

reducing traffic and helps reduce parking needs, which results in lower carbon dioxide and pollutant emissions, and

less environmental burdens (Schreier et al., 2018).

In several countries, number of companies are offering car sharing services, which are becoming increasingly popular and spreading in the cities of the world, e.g. in Tokyo, Moscow, Beijing, cities of the United States and Europe, also including Budapest. Due to its relatively small innovation content, the impact of car sharing is often underestimated, and it is only regarded as a sub-market of driving, since even in the United States less than 1 percent of the total distance of car is accounted for by car sharing. According to the expectations of Morgan Stanley, while the rate of car sharing on public roads is continuously increasing and may reach 20 percent by 2030, the dynamics of vehicle manufacturing is gradually decreasing, primarily due to the environmentally conscious behaviour (Smith, 2016) (Chart 4-12).

Chart 4-12: Evolution of the global car sharing forecast

Percent 20

15

10

5

0

2015 2016 2017 2018

2019 2020 2020 2021 2022

2023 2024 2025 2026

2026 2027 2028 2029 2030

Note: Shared cars include taxi services, but do not include rental cars. Source: Morgan Stanley.

According to calculations by Frost and Sullivan, a car owner can save USD 1,834 on average – assuming travel of 19,000 km annually – by switching to a car sharing service (Economist, 2010). A survey of the car sharing system operating in Bremen showed than one shared vehicle is able to replace 14 privately owned cars. Car sharing has also contributed to the change in households’ car purchase decisions, as they purchased 2,700 fewer vehicles. In

addition, they also travelled less than an average Bremen household. Furthermore, car sharing users do their shopping more often locally, in Bremen, which also strengthens the local retail trade turnover. Moreover, car sharing users travelled 15-20 percent fewer kilometres than before they started to use this service (Schreier et al., 2018).

Nijland et al. (2015) obtained similar results using Dutch data, i.e. the households using car sharing travelled significantly less and the ratio of car owners is also lower. Thus, expansion of the service reduced annual CO 2 emissions by approximately 250 kg. In a breakdown by the means of travel, car sharing replaced 38 percent of car use and 35 percent

of travel by train.

country by 90 percent. In addition, producers in several

4.2.3 AGRICULTURE

While agriculture has the lowest global CO 2 emissions of

the sectors under review, as a result of human activity, the ratio and quality of harvested and arable land are continuously decreasing and deteriorating. Due to the demographic boom observed in the developing countries, the shortages of food and the long-term social and economic damages resulting from this, the sector badly needs the latest technologies to mitigate and arrest these trends.

For this reason, green investments are also essential in agriculture (particularly in the developing countries). Due to the increasingly frequent extreme weather conditions, the issues of drought, flooding, deforestation and food waste are receiving stronger emphasis, as they substantially influence access to food and nutrition, and accordingly, production and processing as well. The rapid, continuous increase in fossil fuel-based energy

from the water-purifying plants and the test equipment.

consumption and the growing exploitation of natural assets represent a risk to the food, drinking water and wood supply, as well as the fish population (WBCSD, 2010).

The Netherlands and Denmark, serving as an example for many countries, committed themselves to sustainable agriculture in the early 2000s. As a result of this, the technological maturity of the aforementioned countries is almost unique in agriculture. They already use drones

to monitor arable land

in many places,

and thus the chemistry and water content of the soil can be examined from a height of 10 meters. In addition, farmers obtain information about the degree of the nutrients in the plants, and due to this they can also easily assess the

progress of growing. Relying on a mobile phone application, the soil PH, organic material content and other characteristics can be tested. Using these results, additional analyses can be produced in a short time. Since dependency of the plants of key importance for the cases entirely eliminated the use of pesticides. Progress

was also achieved in animal husbandry, as Dutch poultry and livestock farmers have managed to decrease the use

of antibiotics by 60 percent since 2009 (Viviano, 2017).

Furthermore, big data may facilitate the forecasting of food shortages by combining information related to drought, weather conditions, migration, prices and earlier production data (Hammer et al., 2017). In connection with this, the US-based firm

Climate Corporation provides weather simulation to farmers and producers which prepares estimates and forecast of the expected crop yields based on the daily weather data over the past

months. (It collects information from approximately 2.5 million locations and also performs soil observation.) Thus, farmers and producers can plan planting and harvesting better and more efficiently (Lokanathan et al., 2017).

As scarce resource, drinking water requires continuous monitoring. There are number of examples in this field, where early intervention is possible relying on data from

measuring instruments installed in industrial network,

2000, some of the plant breeders reduced the water

In this way they contribute to reducing the spread of illnesses related to pollutants in the water, and the technology may also help public utility companies and industrial users comply with water quality requirements.

Chart 4-13: Forecast for harvested and arable land based on the green growth scenario

1660

1700 Million hectares

Million hectares

1600 1620

1500 1580

1400 1540

1300

2012 2030

Harvested areas

2040 2050

Arable land (right axis)

1700

Source: FAO, MNB calculation.

1500

The intensity of agricultural production is likely to rise in parallel with the increase in population, which is also confirmed by the forecasts. Based on these projections, the

area under agricultural cultivation is expected to rise to 5.4 billion hectares by 2050, while grass and arable land between 2010 and 2050 are expected to increase by 11 and 6 percent, respectively, if the examined technological

change is realised. The harvested area is expected to reach 1.7 billion hectares to meet the increasing food demand (Chart 4-13). The annual value of agricultural investments may reach USD 120-200 billion on average, which may primarily be used for agricultural research and development, pest control and food processing. In the field of plant cultivation, crop yields are expected to increase by 11–17 percent by 2050. According to the expectations, by 2050 soil quality will improve by 21-27 percent, which is attributable to the delayed effect of more sustainable agricultural practices and technologies (UNEP, 2011; FAO, 2018).

4.2.4 MANUFACTURING

The high level of CO 2 emissions by the manufacturing sector (see Section 2) clearly illustrates the need to implement green technologies that boost efficiency and environmental sustainability, in conjunction with energy- and material-efficient production processes, which on the whole results in decreasing pollutions and costs (UNEP, 2011). According to Tricoire (2019), green manufacturing is primarily about changing the business and productions practices, and the attitude of the companies, as well as about the electrification and digitalisation of processes. In addition, it is also essential to replace carbon intensive materials with less carbon intensive, natural materials. Cleaner and safer industrial production and green manufacturing have a significant impact not only on the environment, but also on human health. According to Tricoire (2019), it is essential to enhance the material processing systems. For example, the application of wheat straw packaging may result in 40 percent energy saving and 90 percent water saving. Saint-Gobain is a good example of this, which wants to reduce its CO 2 emissions in

production by 20 percent by 2025 via digital innovation

and curbing energy consumption (Dhalla, 2019).

According to Tricoire (2019), within the production process, in addition to maintenance, repair and renovation, reuse and recycling also gain importance in the optimal use of resources.

Whirlpool, for instance, applies enhanced recycling practices during the production process, by collecting cardboard boxes and plastic, which serve as raw material for parts in production. The company expects to

save almost USD 3 million using this method (Whirlpool, 2019).

Owing to the production process innovation, the improved efficiency realised in the energy-intensive industries also helps to protect the environment.

By enhancing its production processes, the pharmaceutical company Bio-pharma reduced the error factor of its end-product and cut its operating expenses by 13 percent, which also had favourable impact on the volume of consumed energy.

Using the available data which was not previously used in process optimisation, they defined the key factors influencing the end-product, which helped them change the quality and cost of the end-product (Msrcosmos, 2017).

New technologies (such as artificial intelligence, business intelligence and cloud computing) being deployed by manufacturing optimise and flexibly steer the use of renewable energy resources. According to the expectations, by 2022 almost 75 percent of manufacturers will use cloud computing services, which may help to substantially reduce environmental burdens (Dhalla, 2019).

4.2.5 SERVICES SECTOR

Similarly to the developments that are currently underway, in the near future the weight of the tertiary sector is expected increase further, which will also boost environ

mental sustainability. More and more services are available – also in the sectors we have highlighted, such as healthcare and financial services – that rely on the use of big data, which increasingly puts the focus on the environmentally friendly, efficient utilisation of resources. Due to the development of technology and big data, employment in the services sector can be expected to increase in long term.

The future of the services sector will be determined by the implementation of certain key technologies and the speed of their penetration. One of the most important of these is

FinTech (Financial Technology), which compared to traditional financial service providers (e.g. banks), uses the latest technologies to offer innovative financial services, providing a superior customer experience. The key areas of the application of Fintech (money transfer, payments, consultancy, banking, etc.) may fundamentally alter the current form of the financial sector.

incoming data (traffic levels, weather, humidity, wind

patterns, etc.). In addition to this, China intends to reduce CO 2 emissions by curbing carbon-based energy production, optimising the cloud-based analytical system and applying renewable energy resources (Nepal, 2014). As a result of

this, Beijing was able to reduce the ratio of ultrafine particles (i.e. aerosol, smoke, dust, ashes and pollen) in the

air by 20 percent, and thus it came closer to its objective set in 2017, to achieve a reduction of 25 percent (Theron-Ord, 2015).

Another technology of great significance is blockchain.

“Blockchain is the incorruptible digital general ledger of economic transactions, which can be programmed not only for the recording of financial transactions, but virtually for anything that has a value.” 18 Its mechanism based on decentralisation makes the application safe, and thus it may represent the future in areas such as smart contracts (coding of simple contracts, which are executed when the defined conditions are fulfilled), the sharing economy, community financing, data storage, the Internet of Things, management of personal data, share trading, etc. Digitisation also has significant potential in other areas of health services. Telemedicine allows a patient to consult with a doctor who is in another part of the world, thus reducing treatment time and costs. In addition, the development of Artificial Intelligence may also reduce the duration of assessment. After an MRI scan is complete, the computers will immediately establish a diagnosis and outline the further course of treatment. Finally, portable smart devices (smart watches, smart bracelets) immediately and automatically notify emergency services, thus increasing the chances of survival.

Finally, looking ahead, the development of artificial intelli

gence will also have significant impact on the development

of services. AI-based solutions are fundamentally transforming the current conditions in transport (spread of autonomous cars), education, healthcare (personalised medicine recommendations, 24/7 health consultancy), retail trade (personalised offers, efficient comparison of various offers), banking (fast and accurate loan administration, curbing fraud) and will raise the customer experience to a completely new level in the near future.

4.2.5.1 Healthcare

Due to the new and smart technologies and forecasts, health‑ care expenditures are expected to decrease and this may help improve the health condition of the society, which may result in further savings, and it may be possible to reduce and prevent epidemics and other diseases.

In 2014, Beijing concluded a 10-year agreement with IBM advanced weather forecasting system relying on cloud technology, artificial intelligence and IoT, to resolve the smog problem. The city created an early warning system by

setting up 35 observation stations, which can forecast the degree of acute pollution three days in advance, using the

4.2.5.2 Financial services

The Paris Agreement adopted in 2015 also includes curbing global CO 2 emissions of financial processes, and the UN also joined the initiative with an SGD target. The agreement emphasises investments in sustainable technologies and corporations (encouraging lending for environmental purposes), which may finance growth in a sustainable, long-term manner, and can contribute to low CO 2 emissions and protecting our environment (European Commission, 2019a). The mobilisation of private investors is essential in the financial sector as well, for the global financing of sustainable projects (combating climate change, social inequalities, exploitation of natural assets) (European Commission, 2019b). Pursuant to an agreement signed in

2019, the Dutch Tridos Bank committed to reducing its CO 2 emissions by 49 percent until 2030 by financing sustainable projects (primarily renewable energy source projects) such

as wind and solar energy park investments (van Waveren, and Green Horizon, based on which they developed an

2019).

Banks and insurers have direct and full access to a large amount of customers’ financial data. In addition to customer data, they also collect data from social media, mobile phone data and other surveys, which may facilitate customer retention, offers and faster data processing (Hussain – Prieto,