The International Telecommunications Union is developing a
standard way to assess the impact of information and communications
technology on the environment, with the aim of cutting CO2
emissions in the manufacture and use of ICT.
ITU secretary general
Hamadoun Touré told Computer Weekly that he hopes the standard,
which could be published this year, would become a global
benchmark.
He said that the ICT sector produces between 2.5% and 5% of
global CO2 emissions. This was not the key issue, he said. "Far
more important is the role ICT can play in reducing emissions
through technologies such as telepresence and remote working in
saving emissions from transport," he said.
The ICT industry was aware of the contribution it could play but
it was hard to get concerted action because of different measuring
schemes, he said.
The ITU set up a
study
group under the chairmanship of
Keith Dickerson, BT Design's head of standards, in May 2009 to
assess the impact of ICTs on climate change. One of its primary
aims is to develop a standard method for assessing the
environmental impact of ICT.
Dickerson said the working party also aims to develop standards
for power saving in ICT equipment, higher voltage and more
efficient power supplies, and recycling.
He said BT would use these standards to drive its suppliers to
reduce their power consumption and hence CO2 emissions as a way of
meeting its own targets. The first suppliers likely to be affected
are those supplying equipment for BT's 21st century network.
However, Touré said first concrete results were likely to be an
agreement between mobile phone suppliers to develop a standard
charger for all handsets.
Touré said the entire ICT manufacturing industry, from chip
makers to system integrators was involved or expressed interest in
the project.
Dickerson said he was working with representatives from other
ICT companies including France Telecom, Alcatel-Lucent and
Fujitsu.
The ITU is working towards the development of standards in
the following areas to reduce the impact of information and
communications technologies on climate change:
WG Name Chairman
17/5 Coordination and Planning of ICT&CC related
standardisation Paolo Gemma,Franz Zichy
18/5 Methodology of environmental impact assessment of ICT
Jean-Manuel Canet, Takafumi Hashitani
19/5 Power feeding systems Kaoru Asakura, Didier Marquet
20/5 Data Collection for Energy Efficiency for ICTs over the
lifecycle Gilbert Buty. Dave Faulkner
21/5 Environmental protection and recycling of ICT
equipment/facilities Didier Marquet, Júlio Cesar Fonseca;
Xia Zhang, Paulo Curado