The information and communication technology (ICT) could move the climate change agenda forward, because technology offers practical means of cutting carbon emissions. This is what the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), together with a coalition of industry partners, will be working to convince delegates at the UN COP 17 climate change conference in Durban next week. They aim to promote ICTs as the 21st century’s most valuable problem-solving tools.
The institute defends that today’s advanced technologies can transform social, industrial and business processes to effect the changes needed to achieve sustainability. However, ITU points that while the potential of ICTs to make a real difference is widely recognized by the technology community and government ICT ministries, it is still far from being understood and embraced by environmental lobby groups and policymakers.
The ITU believes that ICTs should be included as an integral part of global climate change policy.
ITU and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) have initiated the Global Coalition on ICT and Climate Change to send a coordinated message to the 2011 UN Climate Change Conference. They reinforce that ICTs such as smart grids, intelligent transport systems and the Internet of things have extraordinary potential to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of other high energy-consuming industry sectors, and must be included in any meaningful climate change policies at the global, regional and national level.
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