DIGITAL AND GREEN ECONOMY: COMMON GROUNDS AND CONTRADICTIONS

Introduction. The processes of digitalization of an economy, associated with the deployment of technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, are multifaceted and have a significant impact, including on the environment, which affects the interests of future generations. Problem Statement. Acceleration of digitalization is accompanied by contradictory positive and negative effects on the environment. In this regard, the identification of these effects at both the global and national levels is an urgent problem. Purpose. The purpose is to identify the relationship between the digital and green economy and to substan tiate ways of environmentally safe development of digital technologies in Ukraine. Materials and Methods. Clustering of world countries on the basis of economic, industrial, and digital development; econometric analysis of the relationships between the ICT development index and the environmental performance index in the world countries and their groups (clusters) for 2017-2020. Results. It has been established that at the global level, the introduction of state-of-the-art digital technologies has a generally positive relationship with the state of environment: the higher the level of digitalization, the more environment friendly national economies, other things being equal. It has been found that the environmental performance of digitalization depends on the level of manufacturing (tangible) technologies and the overall economic development. In the clusters of less developed coun-tries, including Ukraine that has significant problems in industry and innovation, the spread of digital technologies has less positive impact on the environment than in the clusters of more advanced econ-omies. Therefore, the long-term positive effects of digitalization for Ukraine are not obvious, while the negative ones may have serious negative consequences. Conclusions. To minimize the environmental risks of digitalization processes in Ukraine, it is necessary to develop a national academic program for comprehensive assessment of effects of various aspects (abiotic, biotic, anthropogenic) of digital technologies on environment, as well as to harmonize economic digitalization programs with the overall strategy for innovation-driven national manufacture.