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Policies
Government of Canada launches second phase of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced the launch of the second phase of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy. Backed by an investment of more than $443 million committed in Budget 2021, the second phase of the strategy will seek to bridge world‑class talent and cutting-edge research capacity with commercialization and adoption to ensure that Canadian ideas and knowledge are mobilized here at home.
The second phase of the Pan- Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy includes:- $60 million for Canada' s national AI institutes- Amii in Edmonton, Mila in Montréal and the Vector Institute in Toronto- to help translate AI research into commercial applications and grow the capacity of businesses to adopt these new technologies.
- $125 million for Canada' s Global Innovation Clusters to accelerate AI commercialization by supporting Canadian small and medium- sized enterprises, attracting private investment from other public and private sources, and developing made-in-Canada AI solutions.
- $8.6 million for the Standards Council of Canada to advance the development and adoption of standards and a conformity assessment program related to AI.
- $160 million for CIFAR to continue programs to attract, retain and develop academic research talent and maintain centres of research, innovation and training at Canada' snational AI institutes.
- $48 million for CIFAR to renew and enhance its advanced research, training and knowledge mobilization programs.
- $40 million to provide dedicated computing capacity for AI researchers across Canada.
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Policies
Singapore government releases Singapore Green Plan 2030
Singapore announced its “Long-Term Low-Emissions Development Strategy” in April 2020, aiming to reduce its carbon emissions from a peak to 33MtCO2e by 2050. To achieve this goal, the "2030 Singapore Green Plan" was launched in February 2021, planning five strategies to help achieve the goal through multiple measures.
In February 2021, the Singapore Green Plan 2030, which is jointly responsible for five ministries, was launched. The following are the key and specific policies:- City in Nature: develop new parks and natural landscape, improve tree planting rate, and establish a harmonious environment between residents and wildlife.
- Sustainable Living: reduce garbage and water waste, encourage mass public transport, improve cycling paths, and strengthen green efforts in schools.
- Energy Reset: develop EV and charging points, develop green energy, and improve the greener infrastructure and buildings.
- Green Economy: implement carbon tax (levied in 2019, and it is expected to increase from SGD 5 / MT to SGD 25 / MT in 2024), attract sustainable investment, develop sustainable industries (e.g. chemistry, finance, tourism), and promote the green transformation of enterprises.
- Resilient Future: adapt to sea-level rise and enhance flood resilience. Promote locally produced food.
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Policies
Natural Resources Canada establishes digital accelerator to introduce artificial intelligence to the government
The Canadian government realizes that artificial intelligence is an important investment for the government to face challenges and support natural resources. Therefore, Natural Resources Canada has established a digital accelerator to provide practical solutions by collaborating with scientists, economists and researchers, and sharing beneficial knowledge and innovative technologies.
At the Digital Accelerator, take a hands-on-approach to growing the department’s artificial intelligence-related competencies. The Digital Accelerator partner with scientists, economists and researchers to deliver tangible products that contribute to the success of their programs while sharing knowledge and innovative techniques that will have a lasting impact on the delivery of their work. It is the mission to introduce or improve artificial intelligence-related capabilities at NRCan and to broadly inform Canada’s natural resource sectors on how best incorporate digital solutions in their operations.
NRCan scientists and researchers are applying innovative digital solutions to support sustainable development and the competitiveness of Canada’s natural resource sector, which contains three areas:- Energy area: Driving clean, sustainable growth to enhance energy sector competitiveness, allowing for better prediction of energy usage and technology development.
- Mining area: Harnessing innovation to enhance efficiency, lower costs, increase productivity, and improve environmental performance in the mining sector.
- Forestry area: Transforming Canada’s forestry sector – across value and supply chains – through the development of technologies that increase operational efficiency and enhance the use of big data.
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Policies
「Bridging the Dutch and European Digital Sovereignty gap 」report published by TNO, strengthening digital sovereignty makes Europe less vulnerable both politically and economically.
In this paper indicate that digital sovereignty means the control over digital technologies. Digital technologies have a major impact on how our society and economy functions. However, the less control the Netherlands and Europe have over digital technologies the more dependent on others, including those that do not share our values and those who are ill- intentioned. Moreover, a lack of digital sovereignty also leads to a decrease in competitiveness of the EU digital space. Among other reasons, point to the importance of digital sovereignty to ensure the long-term preservation of European societal values and our social market economy.
In the paper show that the dependence on non-European digital technologies for the Netherlands and Europe is currently at an unacceptable level, since a strong dependency is present on almost every digital technology layer:- Networking and connectivity：The development of cellular network standards has shifted from Europe (for 2G, 3G and 4G) to Asia (for 5G).
- Data storage & cloud：There is an increasing dependence on US-led hyperscalers (Amazon, Google, Microsoft). At the same time there are concerns about the impact on the US Cloud Act, which threatens the security of data stored in Europe. Decentralised European alternatives such as Gaia-X and IDS are under development, but not fully implemented yet.
- Information & data infrastructures：The layer of information and data infrastructures is also driven by non-European hyperscalers.
- Algorithms：The data pools that are enabling for algorithms and machine learning applications are in the hands of non-European stakeholders.
- Applications：The applications are often in non-European hands since the Netherlands and Europe are not sovereign on the underlying digital technology layers.
- Smaller, cheaper and more powerful hardware such as EUV for ICs, better batteries and antennas – enabling more pervasive computing.
- Quantum technology.
- Invest in technology development for 6G, decentralised information & data infrastructures, trustworthy AI.
- Stimulate the development of new business models for decentralised information & data infrastructures, that ensure sovereignty.
- Stimulate adoption of these technologies in key application areas (e.g. Smart Health, Smart Mobility, Smart production, Smart Society) to ensure market-pull.
- Set-up and strengthen international cooperation in the aforementioned key technology development areas and application areas.
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Policies
Government of Canada legislates climate accountability with first net-zero emissions lawto avert the worst impacts of climate changefully seize the economic opportunities that it presents
Canada passed the "Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act" at the end of June. The specific content includes
(1) national targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada with the objective of attaining net-zero emissions by 2050, (2) set the 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target as being Canada’s Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement, (3) set the subsequent 2035, 2040 and 2045 targets at least 10 years in advance. The Act also provides accountability and transparency by: (1) goals and progress reports are required to be tabled in both Houses of Parliament and made available to the public, (2) providing for public participation for amendments, (3) the Net-Zero Advisory Body as a Governor in Council-appointed body is established to provide independent advice, (4) the Minister of Finance shall explain key measures that the federal public administration has taken to manage its financial risks and opportunities related to climate change, (5) requiring the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to, at least once every five years, examine and report on the Government of Canada’s implementation of measures aimed at mitigating climate change, (6)providing for a comprehensive review of the Act, five years after it comes into force (7) enshrining the role of Indigenous Knowledge in the climate accountability process. The 2030 emission reduction plan and progress reports will be released in the coming months.
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Policies
UK Policies for the Cultivation of AI Talents in the Digital Era
In order to respond to the challenges of the labor market and skills in the AI era, the UK proposes the policy direction and content of AI talent cultivation, including (1) improving the skills of AI Education Talents: setting up a skills training plan for computer science teachers and a national calculus science and technology education center to promote calculus education (2) cultivating high-level doctoral and master talents: increasing master's and doctoral places, providing AI master's courses Online master of continuing education courses and advanced open online courses with credits (3) leveraging international talents: promote international academic award programs, double the number of outstanding talent visas, and provide global talent visa applications to attract and retain stem talents all over the world (4) cultivating practical industrial talents: promote national retraining programs to re-cultivate the skills of all citizens; With the goal of building a country proficient in digital technology, provide free e-learning courses including apprenticeship, digital boot camping, digital authorization, help-to-grow plan, free no degree courses (5) establishinginternational research centers to promote international cooperation and deal with common issues about digital ethics and security
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Policies
ICT-Pact: Joining forces towards circularfair ICT
On June 14, 2021, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, Austria, and Switzerland have signed the pact, as well as the Circular Innovation Council in Canada. The Dutch Minister for the Environment, Stientje van Veldhoven has initiated the pact. The aim of the pact is to create a network of procurers all contributing to a large, collective demand for circular and fair laptops and smartphones. This in turn helps ICT producers change their business and accelerates innovations. Together the pact accelerates the process to a sustainable market. Both procuring organizations and government can join the pact. Procurers who join commit to buying circular and fair where possible, harmonizing their demand and sharing their experiences. Both public and private procuring organizations are welcome. The Pact is a procurement-driven partnership that can be signed by both public and private procuring organizations. Their demand forms the backbone of the Pact. To empower them, the Pact will provide ambitious guidelines, examples and common, easy-to-use baseline criteria that will improve over time. These will build where possible on the valuable work already done in participating countries, on EU Green Public Procurement, on ICT ecolabels, and in fair procurement initiatives. The pact further boosts the effectiveness of the buyer groups by supporting knowledge sharing between them and connecting them in an international network. On an international level, the pact will support a constructive high-level dialogue between procurers and the ICT market.
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