IT should be included in Copenhagen agreement, says UN agency

Tom Young, Computing, Friday 30 October 2009 at 15:50:00

Specific mention of IT in draft agreement will commit policy makers to seek
technical solutions to reducing emissions

IT should be seen as key to reducing emissions in any successor to the Kyoto
Protocol agreed in Copenhagen this December, according to the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The body ? which is an agency of the UN ?says specific mention of the
critical role of information and communication technology in the Copenhagen
draft agreement will help commit policy makers around the world to seeking
technical solutions to reducing emissions.

"Since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997, the number of ICT
users has tripled worldwide, yet ICTs find no mention in the current draft
agreement," the union said in a statement.

"If the ingenuity of technological innovation has inadvertently created
environmental damage, the ITU believes the same drive to innovate can be
harnessed through ICTs to reduce carbon footprint across all industry sectors."

A recent study estimated that more effective use of ICTs could help reduce
total global emissions by 15 per cent by 2020, representing carbon savings five
times higher than the estimated emissions for the whole ICT sector in 2020.

The Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) estimates that these reductions
could deliver energy efficiency savings to global businesses of over ?500bn.

The union says smart grids, sustainable networks, energy-efficient
datacentres, teleworking, intelligent cars, smart buildings and energy-efficient
workspaces will all be key in reducing emissions.

And intelligent transport systems such as parking guidance systems, GPS and
RFID-based road pricing schemes can all help reduce journey distances.

And the unions says using satellite monitoring instead of ground-monitoring
for farming needs can reduce CO2 emissions by 97 per cent.

In Africa, the UN has teamed up with mobile phone companies and other
partners to install 5,000 new weather stations to monitor the impact of climate
change, transmitting news immediately to farmers? mobile phones via text
messages.

A study by Gartner in 2007 found IT to be responsible for 2 per cent of
global emissions worldwide.

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2252305/should-included-copenhagen