ICTs and Adaptation; Thoughts from Egypt and
Sharing Results of the ITU Questionnaire on ICT and
Adaptation
The 7th ITU Symposium on ICT, the
Environment and Climate ChangeMontreal 2012
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
Egypt
Green ICT Strategic Initiative within the new
ICT Sector Strategy 2012- 2017
Raising Community Awareness
Sustainable
ICT sector
ICT &
Climate
Change
Adaptation
ICT &
Climate
Change
Mitigation
Egypt’s Status: Sustainable ICT sector
National Pro-Growth Green ICT Strategy
(MCIT- WB)
Green ICT Stakeholders’ Committee
Towards a
Sustainable ICT
Sector
Sustainable Management of ICT
Resources and Procurements (from
Cradle to Grave).
Knowledge Sharing and Information
Exchange
Green Awareness Raising “Towards a
behavioral Change”
Egypt’s Efforts :Sustainable Management of ICT
Resources and Procurement (form Cradle to Grave)
Green Procurement booklet
National E-waste assessment Study
Sustainable ICT
Resources and
Procurement
Egypt’s WEEE directive
Legal and trade measures (Basel convention,
Ban Amendment , etc…)
Take back system
TOR for a diagnostic Analysis for E-waste
management practices
Pilot project on E-waste management
(EERC, Spear-ink, SOY NGO, etc…)
Egypt’s Status: ICT & Climate Change
Adaptation
Meteorological and Atmospheric
Observation
ICT & CC
Adaptation
Monitoring and
Observation
Systems
Air Pollution Monitoring
Agro-meteorological Monitoring
Water Resources Monitoring
Systematic Earth Observations (Egypt
SAT-1)
Egypt’s Status: ICT & Climate Change
Mitigation
Smart
Transportation
ICT & CC Mitigation
Smart
Buildings
MOU for “building an intelligent
transportation system “
(MCIT & IBM)
Green Pyramid Rating System (GPRS):
the Egyptian Green Building Rating
system
Smart Village
Green
Technology
Parks
New Technology
Area-Maadi
Pilot project on “Solar
photovoltaic powered
LEDS fixtures for street
lighting system in New
Technological AreaMaadi Egypt”
Sharing best Practices and Awareness
Raising
Leveraging existing
capabilities, working for
and with the community
to raise awareness on
Green ICT.
Developing Green ICT
skills& forming local
Cadres.
Demonstrate success and feasibility
Life Cycle Sustainable management of ICT Resources with special focus on
E-waste…
Seeking ICT solutions For a sustainable future.
MCIT to be a green certified building
Engaging the Government- Private Sector, Civil
Society and Academic Community
ITU and
Governments; A
Virtuous Cycle ??
ITU
Recomm.
Standards
Guideline
Action
plans
International
agreements
National
Strategies
PoliciesStrategiesPrograms
Gov.
5th ITU Symposium on ICTs, the
Environment and Climate change- Cairo
Road Map ”
Step 1: Sharing best practices and raise awareness about the
benefits associated with the use of green ICTs
Step 2: Demonstrating success and feasibility
Step 3: Engaging the private sector, civil society and academic
community
Step 4: Promoting national, regional and international
cooperation
Step 5: Integrating ICT, climate, environment and energy
policies
Step 6: Developing and implementing a National Pro-Growth
Green ICT strategy
SG5- Q23
The ITU Survey on ICT and Climate Change- 2011
193 Member States in ITU
Answers were received from
49 Member States
65 + 4 complete entries received
4 entries from
transition countries
27 entries from
developed countries
12 entries from least
developed countries
22 entries from
developing countries
144 Member States did not provide an
answer to the survey
Some countries provided more than one answer
(e.g. Belgium=2, People’s Republic of China=2, Finland=3, Greece=7, Japan=3, Spain=2, Russian Federation=2,
United Kingdom=2)
Entries received from Ministries, Regulatory Authorities,
Sector Members and Associates
12
Preliminary Results of
Question 7
Is your administration using any systems and applications of
ICT to adapt to climate change?
please specify in which area and the type of system and application used:
Water supply- Food supply- Health- Maintenance of
infrastructure- Electricity- Gas- Road- Rail- Airport- Others
Most selected fields: Maintenance of infrastructure,
followed by electricity and health.
Food supply and water supply the least selected.
Preliminary Results of
Question 8
What ICT services would enable communities
better adapt to climate change?
Sample Responses:
 Cited Global Framework for Climate Services, developed by the World
Meteorological Office
 New solutions are available, data and radio plus internet with targeted
messaging
 Digital Brigade support provided to communities that have suffered
destruction caused by climate events;
 Directorate for the Appropriation of ICTs trains people from the
community in environmental issues and uses community radio stations to
enhance these processes;
 Computers for Education programme can contribute to raising awareness
regarding the environment and climate change using various ICT tools
 Text (SMS) message services- 16 mentioned them
 Innovative responses- simple but good solutions
15
Preliminary Results of
Question 9
What specific technologies or
standards for ICT equipment are
used by your administration to
gather data to monitor climate
change?
Q9
What specific technologies or standards for ICT equipment
are used by your administration to gather data to monitor climate
change?
Type of technology
Mentioned by
number of entities
Satellite systems:
32
Airborne systems:
11
Terrestrial systems
(mobile and fixed):
41
Subsea systems:
11
Others:
8
17
Preliminary Results of
Question 10
What technologies and/or standards could
enhance the gathering of data/information about
climate change for your administration?
Q10
What technologies and/or standards could enhance the
gathering of data/information about climate change for your
administration?
Ministry of Communications and
Informatization
(Belarus)
Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology
(People’s Rep. of China))
Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and
Networks
(Greece)
• Web technologies, wireless broadband access, M2M.
• ICT environment-monitoring technology.
• Installing remote sensors and submarine cables to monitor climate
change.
Korea Communications Commission
(Republic of Korea)
• NDIR, GC-ECD, Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN), etc.
Lesotho Communications Authority
(Lesotho)
• Automated weather stations with advanced terrestrial systems (GPS)
satellite.
Nepal Telecommunications Authority
(Nepal)
• Sophisticated wireless sensor networks, wireless IP networks ,
satellite imaging sensors.
19
Preliminary Results of Question 11
What information communication technologies and standards
are used by your administration to disseminate information
about climate change to those who need it? Examples include
the following
Terrestrial systems (public fixed)
Terrestrial systems (public cellular)
Terrestrial systems (private networks/private mobile radio)
Interactive voice
Others
Q11 What ICTs and standards are used by your
administration to disseminate information about
climate change to those who need it (e.g. in broadcast,
satellite systems)?
Type of technology or standard
Noted by
# of
entities
Terrestrial systems
(public fixed):
33 (20)
Terrestrial systems
(public cellular):
33 (31)
Terrestrial systems
(private networks/ private mobile radio):
24 (26)
Interactive voice:
14 (26)
Others:
16
No reply:
20
21
Preliminary Results of Question 12
What technologies and/or standards could
enhance the dissemination of information
about climate change to those who need it?
Sample Responses
 The Need for International Standards
 Development of a special international standard and/or protocol for the
transmission of climate change data, similar to the alerting protocol
developed by ITU-T (Common Alerting Protocol) could enhance the
effectiveness of climate change data dissemination.
 Information dissemination could be improved using dedicated standards
based on research documentaries, on real statistics, on the impact of
climate change and carbon footprint, and the repercussion thereof on
social, economic and other parameters.
 Addressing the issue of resilience of ICTs… interruptions in
communications during disasters
 Hybrid Technologies
23
What should we do next
concerning ICT and adaptation to
climate change?
Adaptation to Climate as per the replies
 Results showed varying degrees of interest and understanding of the problem at
country and industrial level.
 There are already advanced technologies available for gathering global climate
data: satellite, terrestrial, airborne and subsea. These need further development
and wider exploitation.
 The main problem identified is how to get the information about adaptation to
climate change to those who need it most.
 Responses did not show any details of specific technologies needed
 Solutions need to be deployed at country administration level
 Countries make differing uses of the climate data ranging from none at all
to fairly advanced
 Both broadcast (radio systems) and interactive (telecommunications systems)
are used to disseminate information.
25
ICT and Adaptation to Climate Change- gaps?
Information gathering
 Insufficient climate data is gathered at the local level and sent for
analysis
Information extraction
 Within countries there is often not enough work done on specialist data
processing for user communities
E.g. long-term forecasting for farmers
Information sharing
 Is best done by the internet as it can be well-targeted
 But not all countries are well-served by the internet
Capacity building/education
 Websites are not well linked together
 Many countries/communities do not have a website which contains
specialist information about climate change
 Within countries, government departments do not communicate with
each other about climate change
 Many people do not read or write
 Community meetings, Radio, TV or Telephony services need to be used26
Suggested Next Steps
 Produce a recommendation on best practices on ICT and adaptation as well as
adaptation of the ICT sector.
 Produce a roadmap for an adaptation web site (portal or gateway)
 Consider the possibility of doing the survey next year, as well as on a regular basis (once
a year) to detect differences in Climate Change adaptation practices, as well as
countries’ needs and perceptions.
 Reformulate some questions for better clarity.
 Include new questions depending on recent issues raised in the Adaptation agenda
worldwide.
 Work in cooperation with Q22 on Low cost infrastructure for rural and remote areas.
27
Thank You
Nevine Tewfik
MCIT
ntewfik@mcit.gov.eg