UK and International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
officialsare pushing for IT to be included in
theclimate change
talks in Copenhagenthis
December.
Catalina McGregor, founder of the government's Green ICT
delivery unit, is at talks in Barcelona in her role as ITU-T
liaison officer to OECD and EC, which will look to produce the
draft text to be considered at the Copenhagen summit. She is hoping
to get technology on the agenda.
Technology has no mention in the current draft text for
Copenhagen, but the ITU says it could cut global emissions by 15%
by 2020 and deliver efficiency savings of over €500bn to business.
It says technology needs to be part of the solution to global
warming.
The ITU said, "Successful strategies will require truly radical
change, rather than incremental change to 'business-as-usual'
approaches. ICTs are the only tool powerful enough to serve as the
'circuit-breaker' to our current climate-hostile strategies, and to
effect the true paradigm shift needed to make a difference."
McGregor says the green ICT sector has significant momentum in
it to help reduce emissions. "CIOs today are including bigger
picture areas such as clean energy and renewables to reduce CO2 for
our power-hungry datacentres so we are in a leadership position to
bridge a gap between ICT and CO2 reductions that simply cannot be
ignored."
The ways technology could cut emissions
include:
- Smart grids, sustainable networks, energy-efficient
datacentres, teleworking, intelligent cars, smart buildings and
energy-efficient workspaces.
- Use of gadgets such as the universal charge, which could cut
emissions by 13.6 million tonnes a year.
- Replacing 20% of business travel a year with technology such as
videoconferencing could cut emissions by 22 million tonnes
annually.
- E-mail, online billing, online forms and online music will cut
emissions by reducing the need for manufacture or transport.
- Weather monitoring and early warning systems have a role to
play in protecting developing countries, which are hardest hit by
the impact of climate change.
- Social technologies such as Facebook and Twitter have played a
key role in increasing awareness of the problem.
- RFID-based road pricing schemes can encourage greater use of
public transport.
- Telecommuting can save one million tonnes of emissions annually
for every one million telecommuters.