Greening GovTech: Digital transformation for climate action

Around the world, governments are racing to digitize services and tackle climate change. Yet too often, these efforts happen in silos—or even pull in opposite directions. While digital tools can eliminate paper-based processes, reduce travel, and streamline services, they also depend on energy-intensive data centers, growing processing needs, and generate growing volumes of e-waste if not managed well.

Why greening GovTech matters

GovTech—the use of digital tools to improve public services—has proven its value. It boosts efficiency, transparency, and inclusion by moving services online and connecting systems across government. Our earlier study, Greening Public Administration with GovTech , offered guidance to policymakers on integrating green digital approaches into government processes, such as eco-friendly digital services. The report highlighted how adequate leadership and commitment are essential for effective GovTech and climate policy coordination. Building on this foundation, the new Greening GovTech: explores how governments can align green and digital transitions, ensuring that technology supports climate goals.

The Imperative of Greening GovTech

If we don’t design GovTech with the environment in mind, it can expand a country’s carbon footprint. The global ICT sector  is estimated to account for 2% to 4% of greenhouse gas emissions, with demand rising as cloud computing and AI scale up. Greening GovTech means treating climate considerations as a core part of digital transformation, making public administration both digital and climate smart.

Lessons from Country Experiences

Most governments are just beginning to link digital and climate agendas. In our report, we highlight lessons from three pioneering countries:

• Albania has invested heavily in digitalization, with the e-Albania portal offering over 1,200 services online. With momentum from its EU accession process, the government is expanding paperless processes and re-engineering services to respond to climate-related disasters. The next step for them is to strengthen monitoring and data collection to quantify the environmental benefits.
• Brazil is embedding green standards into its digital journey. The Gov.br platform consolidates thousands of services, while e-Procurement policies are incorporating energy-efficiency criteria across government IT. Brazil is also prioritizing interoperability through its Conecta Gov.br, enabling automatic and secure information exchange so citizens and businesses only need to provide standard data once.
• Germany’s long-standing Green IT Initiative cut federal IT electricity consumption by 50% between 2008 and 2013 by consolidating data centers, virtualizing servers, and procuring energy-efficient equipment. The initiative, recently extended from 2022 to 2027, continues to face challenges including uneven progress across government levels, limited monitoring systems, and rising digital demand driven by new technologies. In response, Germany has set stronger targets and climate criteria for public IT procurement and data center operations, with a renewed focus on robust monitoring and reporting to ensure continued progress toward climate neutrality in public administration by 2030.

These experiences illustrate that greening GovTech is possible at different stages of digital maturity. What matters most is leadership, integration, and a commitment to measuring results.

Measurement is Key: Introducing the GGMA Framework

To support governments in tracking the climate impacts of GovTech, Greening GovTech: Volume 2 introduces the Greening GovTech Measurement Approach (GGMA), a five-step framework:

1. Embed climate goals in digital policies through stronger laws and regulations.
2. Collect data and build a greenhouse gas inventory, especially for data centers, paperless administration, and IT infrastructure.
3. Quantify impacts against a baseline to see real progress.
4. Assess co-benefits and trade-offs such as energy savings from remote services versus increased server use.
5. Maintain measurement, reporting, and verification systems to update targets and adapt policies.

In short: what gets measured gets managed! Without structured data and monitoring, governments cannot capture the environmental benefits—or anticipate the risks—of their digital transitions.

The Path Forward

Greening GovTech is a developing field, but momentum is growing. Governments that prioritize robust, accessible digital services and systematically track environmental data will be better prepared to decarbonize and adapt to climate shocks.

This is not just about efficiency. Aligning digital transformation with climate action lets governments modernize public administration while building resilience against future crises.

The bottom line: Greening GovTech is about getting digital solutions right— designing public services that are efficient and inclusive, while also reducing emissions, minimizing waste, and preparing societies for climate risks. Albania, Brazil, and Germany demonstrate that progress is achievable across diverse contexts. The GGMA framework offers governments a practical roadmap to measure and manage the environmental footprint of their digital reforms. Moving forward requires collaboration among policymakers, development partners, academia, and civil society to ensure digital transformation actively supports the fight against climate change.

Source : World Bank