Work

Integrating environmental sustainability into EU data law and governance: The case of health data

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The explosion of data‐driven technologies and artificial intelligence (DDAI) has created significant environmental sustainability challenges. DDAI produce intense greenhouse gas emissions and e‐waste, and rely heavily on the extraction of minerals for technological components and on water use to cool down data centres. Although several attempts have been made to use DDAI to address the environmental problems of our time, the issue of the (un)sustainability of DDAI technologies themselves remains, from a legal perspective, relatively uncharted territory. Specifically, a theoretical legal attempt to solve the question of how to integrate into EU data law and governance, the environmental (un)sustainability dimension of DDAI technologies is non‐existent. Drawing on relational theories of data governance, this article argues that, to tackle the issue of data (un)sustainability, it is necessary to (re)interpret traditional EU data protection law and governance to account for the benefits and harms to groups, populations and to the environment arising from the use of DDAI.

Source: Review of European Comparative & International Environmental Law

DOI: 10.1111/reel.12614

Author: Enrique Santamaría Echeverría

Institution: Erasmus University Rotterdam

Language: English

Topic: Digitalization, Law, and Regulation

Subfield: Law

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Responsible consumption and production, Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,750