A green digital economy could change the future of the Old Continent. The new Smart Europe will be based on three elements: new communication technologies, new sources of energy and new modes of mobility. But the transition will require a transformation of the continental infrastructure.
Jeremy Rifkin, advisor to the European Union and main architect of the Third Industrial Revolution, has been promoting over the last few years the importance of this approach, enabling collaboration in "vast virtual and physical global networks to create a more ecologically sustainable and equitable quality of life".
This is the fourth essay in the Big Ideas series created by the European Investment Bank.

Jeremy Rifkin is an advisor to the European Union and the People's Republic of China. His recent books include, The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism and The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World. He is the Executive Producer and narrator of the new film, The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy, produced by VICE Media and now available in nineteen languages on YouTube.