Grüne on digital affairs

The Greens want to use digital technology for climate protection while aligning it with climate neutrality and sustainability. Public administration is to lead with a green IT strategy, and fast internet is to be expanded only with fiber optics and 5G.

Computers and the internet should help protect the climate. But they should use little energy themselves. State offices should use climate-friendly technology. New fast internet should come only through fiber and 5G. Old devices should be recycled.

Smart grid control is meant to keep the renewable energy system stable even with many electric cars and heat pumps. The platform sees large efficiency gains from digitalization in industry. A circular economy is to reduce electronic waste, recover raw materials such as rare earths and lessen dependence on supply chains. Public administration is to lead on green IT and climate-neutral data centers. The new network infrastructure is to use less energy than comparable networks.

The Greens want to connect every household in NRW to fiber and 5G by 2030 at the latest. Permits are to be issued faster and the rollout is to receive targeted funding. Public facilities are to get free Wi-Fi.

Internet in NRW is often still slow. The Greens want fast internet everywhere by 2030. Permits should be issued faster. Public buildings should have free Wi-Fi.

Faster permit procedures and targeted subsidies are to drive network expansion. Municipalities and their administrations are to receive support, including local mobile-network coordinators who help close coverage gaps. Equipping public facilities with freely accessible Wi-Fi is to move ahead more quickly.

The Greens want all dealings with public authorities to be available digitally as well, with services that are accessible, easy to understand and multilingual. Municipalities are to receive advice and funding for digitalization. No one is to be excluded from digital services, and in-person contact at offices is to remain.

People should be able to do all official business online too. The services should be easy to understand. Older people should get help using the internet. Anyone who wants can still go to the office in person.

Municipalities are to get advice and funding for digital infrastructure, digital administration and a green IT strategy and build up their own digital expertise; lessons learned are to be collected centrally. The smart city and zero-emission city concepts are to be combined. For people without a device of their own, public facilities are to offer freely usable PC workstations. From daycare to vocational school, computer science, media and source literacy are to be taught better. A project called "Digital mobil im Alter" (digitally mobile in old age) is to strengthen digital participation of older people.

The Greens want more support for digitalization research and for developing digital solutions in NRW, to reduce dependence on non-European providers. AI research would receive considerably more funding, and science would move toward open science.

The Greens want more research on digital technology in NRW. Artificial intelligence in particular should get more money. The technology should protect data and use little energy. Research results should be open to everyone.

Funding would go to interdisciplinary research, including social and ethical questions and technology assessment. IT security, data science and quantum technologies would get targeted support. Funded AI should be sparing with data and energy, non-discriminatory and in line with local data protection standards. Open science covers open access to publications, research data and teaching materials as well as open-source software. In-person study and digital learning would be combined, and initiatives to improve university teaching methods would be supported.

The Greens want to simplify administrative procedures and offer them digitally by default without ending in-person contact. The E-Government Act is to apply to municipalities as well, and new ways of working are to be tested in pilot agencies.

Dealing with public offices is often complicated. The Greens want people to handle almost everything online. In-person appointments should stay. The state should help towns with the technology. Some offices should try out new ways of working.

The platform attributes cumbersome dealings with authorities to outdated technology and procedures. The state is to support municipalities with digital procedures and software so that each one does not have to develop its own solution. In selected pilot agencies, approaches such as "New Work" and agile methods with flat hierarchies are to be tested. So-called administrative incubators are to let agencies develop demanding projects outside their usual structures.

The Greens want to enshrine high standards for IT security and data protection at state and municipal agencies in law. An information access law is to require public bodies to publish their information proactively in open, machine-readable form.

Public offices store a lot of important data. The Greens want a law to protect this data better. Offices should also publish much information on their own. This does not apply to data about individual people. Everyone should be able to use this information.

The platform justifies the security standards by saying that gaps in public IT can have serious consequences. Considerably more agencies are to implement the baseline IT protection of the Federal Office for Information Security. Research by universities and companies as well as start-ups in IT security are to be supported. Non-personal data held by the state and municipalities is to become usable for media, researchers, citizens' groups and businesses. Open data, open source and open access are to become the rule for all public bodies, and citizens are to get faster access to information.