ICT and Climate Change
Adaptation
Hossam Allam, Ph.D.
Head, ICT for Development
Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe
Chairman, ICT for Humanitarian Services Sub-Group
ITU/ Arab Region Working Party
Climate Change Impacts
ƒ Agriculture - includes cropping and livestock sectors
ƒ Biodiversity - includes national reserves, species
diversity, ecosystems
ƒ Coasts - includes fisheries, marine life, coastal
infrastructure
ƒ Forests -includes natural and plantation forests
ƒ Settlements - includes infrastructure, local government,
planning, human health, transport, energy, emergency
services
ƒ Water - includes drought, water quality, water supplies
STERN REVIEW
ƒ Adaptation is crucial to deal with the unavoidable
impacts of climate change to which the world is
already committed.
ƒ Adaptation can mute the impacts, but cannot by
itself solve the problem of climate change.
ƒ Without strong and early mitigation, the physical
limits to – and costs of – adaptation will grow
rapidly.
ƒ Adaptation will in most cases provide local
benefits,
Lake Chad
Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria
Atlas of Our Changing Environment , UNEP
Site: Damietta Promontory
Country: Egypt
Utilizing ICT for Climate Change
Adaptation
ƒ Environmental Monitoring and Analysis
ƒ Environmental Planning
ƒ Disasters Management and Early Warning
Systems
Environmental Monitoring and Analysis
Retreat of the Trift Glacier, Switzerland Source: Swiss Academy of Sciences. Note:
The glacier retreated by around 200m between 2004 and 2005
World Meteorological Monitoring
WMO Global Climate Observing System
Source: World Meteorological Organisation
Environmental Planning
Case Study for AEO Using T21 Malawi Model
Disasters Management and Early Warning Systems
Tsunami early-warning and mitigation system for the Indian Ocean, following the tsunami of 26
December 2004
e-Environment
ƒ A) The use and promotion of ICTs as an instrument for
environmental protection and the sustainable use of natural
resources;
ƒ
ƒ B) The initiation of actions and implementation of projects and
programmes for sustainable production and consumption and the
environmentally safe disposal and recycling of discarded hardware
and components used in ICTs, and;
ƒ C) The establishment of monitoring systems, using ICTs, to
forecast and monitor the impact of natural and man-made
disasters, particularly in developing countries, LDCs and small
economies1.
The Role of FG on ICT and Climate
Change
ƒ To highlight the importance of utilizing
ICT in climate change adaptation.
ƒ To study the increase in energy
consumption of Environmental Monitoring
Networks.
Thank you