ITU-T Workshop
ICTs: Building the Green City of
the Future
Arthur Levin
Chief, ITU-TSB
United Nations Pavilion
EXPO-2010, 14 May 2010
Shanghai, China
May 2010
1
 Tackling Climate Change
Why ICTs?
 Why ITU?
May 2010
2
Introduction to ITU
 Founded in 1865, it is the oldest specialized
agency of the UN system
 Standards making is the first ITU activities
 191 Member States, 780 private sector entities
 HQ Geneva, 11 regional offices, 760 staff/80 nationalities
 Named as one of the world’s ten most enduring institutions
by Booz Allen
 Five elected officials:
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Secretary-General
Deputy Secretary-General
Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR)
Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB)
Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)
May 2010
3
ITU Structure
Plenipotentiary Conference
ITU Council
General
Secretariat
ITU-T
World
Telecommunication
Standardization
Assembly
ITU-R
World/Regional
Radiocommunication
Conference
Radiocommunication
Assembly
ITU-D
World/Regional
Telecommunication
Development
Conference
TELECOM
May 2010
4
ITU Membership
 Member States: 191 governments
 ITU-T, ITU-R, ITU-D Sector Members (565)
 ITU-T Sector membership fee:
31,800 CHF (= 20k EUR)
 Associates (154): have right to participate in one study group
 Associate membership fee:
10,600 CHF (= 7k EUR)
 Today, 95% of the work in ITU-T is done by the private sector
(Sector Members and Associates)
May 2010
5
ITU-T Recommendations
connect the world…
Without ITU-T standards you
couldn’t make a telephone call
from one side of the world to
another.
Without ITU-T standards the
Internet wouldn’t function.
May 2010
6
ITU-T in a Nutshell
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Work (mostly) done in Study Groups (10 of them)
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ITU-T Product: Recommendations (= “standards”)
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+ Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG)
Freely available to the public
Unique partnership of private sector (Sector Members)
& government (Member States)
Truly global
Consensus decisions
Fast procedures, transparent procedures
Common Patent Policy ITU-T/ITU-R/ISO/IEC
May 2010
7
ITU and Academia
 1st Kaleidoscope event 2008:
 140 contributions from
academic institutions from
around the world
 2nd Kaleidoscope event:
 Innovations for Digital Inclusion
 September 2009,
Mar del Plata, Argentina
 3rd Event: Future Networks
(India 2010)
 Best papers proposed as new
work
 Published
May 2010
8
Did you Know?
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Facebook alone uses an amount of capacity more than the entire
Internet in 2000
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It is estimated that the total electricity used in powering and cooling the 2
million servers of the 5 major search engines is around 5 gigawatts – which is
the same amount of power used by the city of Las Vegas on the hottest day of
the year
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The Google data center in Oregon (US) consumes as much electricity each day
as the city of Geneva
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Data centers consumer more electricity than Argentina or the Netherlands
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Between 16-50 Megatons of waste PCs and monitors are disposed of each year.
This is enough to fill a container train of length equal to the circumference of the
earth
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While the average lifespan of a mobile phone is 5 years, 100 million Europeans
will replace a phone this year after only one year of use
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100 million customers receiving online phone bills would save 109,100 ton of
CO2
Whereas 80 Kg. of copper per line and per Km. were necessary in 1915 to carry
a signal, only 0.01g of glass are sufficient today, a factor of 8 million
May 2010
9
GLOBAL FRAMEWORK
 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change
 1997 Kyoto Protocol was adopted at COP-3
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while Convention encouraged developed countries to
stabilize GHG emissions, the Protocol commits them to do
so
 2001 Detailed implementation rules adopted at
COP-7 in Marrakesh
Annex B (developed countries) to reduce GHG emissions in
period 2008-12 (6 gases, notably CO2))
 average overall reduction of 5.2% against 1990
baseline; national targets vary
EU-15 countries have a tougher target of -8%
• aviation and shipping were excluded
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Developing countries: only to monitor and report GHG
emissions
 Protocol established Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
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allows parties to earn and trade emission credits through
projects either in developed or developing countries
ICT not covered
May 2010
10
GLOBAL FRAMEWORK
 2005
Kyoto Protocol came into effect for 177 countries;
189 now have ratified
 2007
Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC
 clear link between GHG emission and climate change
 GHG emissions continue to grow as world continues to
industrialize
 2012
First commitment period under Kyoto Protocol will
expire
 new framework is needed to deliver the stringent
emission reductions the IPCC says are needed
May 2010
11
TOWARD A NEW GLOBAL
FRAMEWORK
2007 COP-13 in Bali launched process for negotiation of the
new Agreement
• established AWGLCA (Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term
Cooperative Action) to develop work program
2008 3 AWGLCA meetings: Bangkok, Bonn, Accra
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**ITU is an observer
2009 Meeting of COP-14: Poznan, Poland
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3 more AWGLCA meetings; ITU sends input
2009 COP-15 meets in Copenhagen
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Plenary “takes note” of the Copenhagen Accord
12 paragraphs of text (started with 200 pages)
100 countries have now signed up; but not China and India
Annex I commitments are all conditional on a new global agreement
Work on underlying Agreement continues
2010 COP-16 in Mexico
May 2010
12