What's the impact of IT on climate change? ITU aims to find out

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by Stuart Corner

Sunday, 13 July 2008

! The International Telecommunication Union has set up a new group to work on standards covering the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on climate change. Related stories Western Australia: Double whammy decline in smoking cannabis Steve Jobs not dead, despite Bloomberg slip Call for content ratings on Apple's App Store New iPods coming September 9th, but no new MacBook? Subscription music coming to iTunes? Maybe! It is estimated that the ICT sector produces between two to three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But ICTs are also seen as a part of the solution to the climate change challenge. The ITU says the new group will focus in particular on the reduction of ICT emissions and how ICTs can assist in cutting emissions in other industry sectors such as energy, transportation and buildings. According to the ITU, "ICTs could help cut global emissions by between 15 to 40 percent, depending on the methodology used to make these estimates." Two recent ITU symposia on ICTs and climate change in Kyoto in April and in London in June this year drew attention to the wide variation in these estimates, and a key objective of the Focus Group will be to develop internationally agreed methodologies to describe and estimate the impact of ICTs on climate change, both directly and through their application in other industry sectors. The Kyoto and London symposia also highlighted the importance of ICT standardisation to deal with the impact of ICT on climate change, as did a study by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) -  a group comprised of key technology companies and organisations, including ITU. The reports of the two symposia were submitted to the G8 Summit held in Hokkaido, Japan, on 7-9 July 2008. Participants in the symposia - representing ICT companies from around the world called on the ITU to increase its activities in ICTs and climate change, as did United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon. He told the London symposium: "The information and communication technology sector has much to offer in creating a cleaner, greener world. But it must also apply international standards in reducing its own greenhouse gas emission." The ITU says it has responded by moving quickly to create the Focus Group on ICTs and Climate Change, with an ambitious work plan to conclude by April 2009. Malcolm Johnson, director of the ITU's Telecommunication Standardisation Bureau, said: "This group is open to all and I encourage contributions from the ICT sector as well as other industry sectors, research institutes, and any other specialists in this field...We must remind ourselves that this is only a first step on the long road to finding and implementing global solutions to the challenge of climate change through the use of ICTs. What is important now is how we act and follow up on the momentum we have created." The group intends to start immediately and will conduct most of its work using remote collaboration tools to the maximum extent. Its members will meet face-to-face for the first time at ITU headquarters in Geneva on 1-3 September 2008 under the chairmanship of David Faulkner of BT. A web page for the Focus Group will be made available shortly, via the ITU-T homepage . Please enable JavaScript in your browser to post your comment! Tags See All Tags Climate Change  Green IT  ITU  Standards  Stuart Corner  Sustainability  Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now

 

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