Coalition agreement defines framework conditions: Digitization as a driver of sustainability

Coalition agreement among partners backing the digital twin

The Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) [Social Democratic Party of Germany], BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN [Alliance 90/The Greens] and the Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP) [Free Democratic Party] presented their coalition agreement for the legislative period 2021 – 2025 on November 24, 2021. The coalition partners acknowledged the importance of digitization for climate protection and explicitly addressed the topic of the “Digital Twin” in the section “Sustainability in Digitalization”. With the correlation of the two topics as well as the importance of the Digital Twin for the progress of German industry, the Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie e. V. (ZVEI), Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e. V. (VDMA), Bitkom e. V. and 20 companies from the electrical industry, mechanical engineering and the software sector faced this challenge and jointly founded the IDTA in 2020. Since then, IDTA has acted as a hub for the Digital Twin based on the Asset Administrative Shell and is driving the market uptake of the technology.

The section on the Digital Twin can be found in the coalition agreement in the paragraph “Sustainability in Digitalization”. “We want to use the potential of digitalization for greater sustainability. By promoting Digital Twins (e.g., working on a virtual model of an analog product), we help reduce the consumption of resources.”