The role of ICT in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The International Telecommunication Union made a statement at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia, demonstrating the part played by information and communication technologies (ICT) as both a cause and a potential cure for climate change.

ITU stated that ICT can play a vital role in combating climate change. They can be used for remote monitoring of climate change and gathering important scientific data -- for instance, using telemetry or remote sensing by satellite. Furthermore, smart technologies can usher in a whole new generation of energy-efficient products, notably in next-generation networks.

ITU pointed out that the proliferation of ICT products in homes and offices, and their deployment throughout the world, places an increasingly heavy burden on energy consumption. The late night glow in homes and offices emanating from computers, DVD players, TVs and battery chargers is all too familiar. And the move to "always-on" services, like broadband or mobile phones on standby, has greatly increased energy consumption compared with fixed-line telephones, which do not require an independent power source. Energy demands caused by high-tech lifestyles in some countries are now being replicated in others.

Key ITU activities that address climate change

• Coordination of the orbital and frequency resources for satellites which play a vital role in gathering data on climate change, such as earth-observation and global climate observing systems (GCOS).
• Standardization work on reducing power requirements of telecommunication equipment, including terminal devices and networking equipment that will have the additional environmental benefit of reducing the production of greenhouse gases and global warming. Standards for next-generation networks (NGN), being developed at ITU, should bring about a 40 per cent saving in energy consumption compared with today's telecommunication networks.
• High-level policy review and guidelines to help developing countries take full advantage of ICT applications for environmental management and sustainable development.
• Two specific technologies under the standardization spotlight -- Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) and Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USNs) -- can help reduce consumption of fossil fuels, by using motion sensors that switch on lights only when necessary or by automatically adjusting heating requirements.
• Significant work on the use of ICT for disaster preparedness (monitoring, detection and prediction).