ITU-T Workshop
ICTs: Building the Green City of
the Future
ICTs as a Tool to Combat
Climate Change
Arthur Levin
Chief, ITU-TSB
United Nations Pavilion
EXPO-2010, 14 May 2010
Shanghai, China
May 2010
1
ICTs and Climate Change
 Methodology to describe and
estimate present and future user
[energy] consumption
of ICTs over their entire
life cycle
 Smarter standards for greener
systems
 Participation in COP
UN Secretary-General,
Ban Ki-moon:
"ITU is one of the very important
stakeholders in the area of
climate change."
Participants in
Focus Group ICT
and Climate
Change
May 2010
2
Importance further identified
at top level
 WTSA-08, Resolution 73, resolves that CC is a
high priority in ITU
 WTPF (April 2009), Opinion 3, instructs
promotion of Resolution 73, etc.
 GSC-14 (July 2009), Resolution, encourages
related collaboration, etc.
 ITU Council (October 2009), Resolution 1307,
unanimously decided its importance and active
participation in UNFCCC including COP-15 in
Copenhagen
May 2010
3
Evidence for climate change
Source: IPCC 4th assessment report, 2007
May 2010
4
Why It Matters
 Impact of CC is costly for many countries even
though they are not a major source of emissions
 E.g. total GHG emissions of Pacific Island countries is
around 0.03% of global total, but half the population of island
countries live within less than a mile of their coastlines; coral
atolls no more than 3 meters above sea level
 Typhoon/hurricane damage will increase by 10-26% for each
1 degree warming of sea
 Deforestation (17-20% of GHG emissions)
 Global Humanitarian Forum estimates CC already
killing 100-300,000 people annually
May 2010
5
Why ICTs Matter
 ICTs (excluding
broadcasting)
contribute an
estimated 2-3% of
global Greenhouse
Gas emissions
 Around 0.9 ton
GtCO2e in 2007
 Telecoms contributed
around one quarter of
this total
 Airplanes and shipping
about 3% each
Source: Gartner Group
May 2010
6
What trends do ICTs have at the
device level?
 Market doubles every 5 years
 E.g. Broadband expanding to more users
 Until market saturates
 Then upgrades replace “obsolete” devices
 New devices become a “must have”
 E.g. HDTV, Smartphones
 Annual growth rate of internet traffic is high
 1.8 billion Internet users worldwide
 Highest growth in data traffic; Internet of things
 All three trends increase ICT demand for energy
 the GeSI Smart 2020 report predicts growth in ICTs energy use of 70%
over the period 2007-2020
May 2010
7
REDUCING ICT SECTOR
EMISSIONS
PCs:
Data Centres:
> Efficiency gains and longer product life.
> Shift from desktops to laptops
> Shift from CRT to LCD screens
> Potential breakthroughs – solid state hard drives,
new LCD screens, new battery technology,
quantum and optical computing
> Higher rates of virtualisation; more efficient
virtualisation architectures
> Low energy cooling
> “Utility”/“cloud” computing, Software as a
service
REDUCING ICT
SECTOR EMISSIONS
Telecoms Devices :
> “Smart” chargers
> 1W or lower standby devices
> Broadband routers and IPTV boxes’ footprint
increases over timeframe due to higher penetration
from small base today
Telecoms Infrastructure:
> New network management tools
> Network optimisation packages
> Solar-powered base stations
> Potential breakthroughs – night battery operation,
natural ventilation, “network sharing”
May 2010
8
Mitigating the impact
 Directly, e.g. through energy-saving
 Next-Generation Networks (NGN) should reduce GHG
emissions by 40%
 Modern radio technologies reduce energy consumption
by transmitters ~ 10 times
 Indirectly, e.g. ICTs for carbon abatement
 Video-conferencing to reduce business travel in Europe
by 1% would save 1 m CO2 ton
 Systemically, e.g. by “dematerialisation”
 Intelligent Transport Systems could reduce vehicle
carbon emissions below 130 g per km
May 2010
9
Placing Future Data Centres…
•
BT will place Energy Efficient,
Green, Sustainable facilities
based on:
•
Electricity is low cost,
consistent, and available
securely and in an
abundance from
renewable sources
•
Fresh Air and Free Air
cooling can be utilised all
year round
•
Network bandwidth low
latency and high capacity
is readily available and
inexpensive
•
Land is low cost, with
plenty of space for
growth/expansion
•
BT will transform existing
sites as much as possible
to meet the standards of
the new BT green data
centre vision
May 2010
10
The Life Cycle of ICT
Hardware
ICT Services
Production
Phase
Resources
Use
Phase
Design
Phase
Recycling
End-of-life
Phase
Residues
Life Cycle of an ICT product
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies calculate the
relevant environmental impacts of the life cycle per
functional unit.
May 2010
11
ICTs at work for monitoring climate
change
 WMO World Weather
Watch, incorporating:
 Global Observing
system
 Global Telecom System
 Global Data Processing
system
 Remote sensing
 Environmental monitoring
 Tsunami early-warning system
 Digital climate forecasting models
 GPS-enabled telemetry
 Ubiquitous sensor networks
May 2010
12
ICTs for adaptation: ITU Role
 Telecommunications/ICTs for disaster preparedness
 Tampere Convention
 PP-06 Resolutions 36 and 136 on use ICTs for humanitarian
assistance
 WRC Resolutions 646, 647, 673 on use of
radiocommunications for environmental monitoring, public
protection and disaster relief
 WTDC-06 Resolution 34 on the role of ICTs in mitigation of
effects of disasters and humanitarian assistance
 Partnership Coordination Panel on Telecoms for Disaster
Relief (PCP-TDR)
 E.164 country code (888) for UN OCHA
 Recommendations E.106 on call priority and X.1303 on
common alerting protocol
May 2010
13
The ICT Enabling Effect
 ICT responsible for 2-3% of global CO2
emissions
 How can we reduce ICT own emissions
 Next Generation Networks
 ICT key to reduce the other 97% of CO2
emissions
 The enabling effect by a factor of five
 ICT as key enabler to reduce emissions in
other sectors
May 2010
14
Green ICT covers all activities on
“Green of ICT” & “Green by ICT”
Green of ICT
Green by ICT
CO2 reduction
of infrastructure
and products
in ICT industry
CO2 reduction
through convergence
with ICT
in other industries
May 2010
15
GREEN By ICT
The opportunities
where ICT could play a
driving role include:
• Smart grid
• Smart buildings
• Smart logistics
• Smart motor systems
• Dematerialisation
May 2010
16
DEMATERIALISATION
The substitution of high
carbon products and
activities with low carbon
alternatives:
> Replacing face-to-face meetings
with tele- and videoconferencing
> Remote working
> Paper with email/online billing
> CDs with online music
May 2010
17
SMART BUILDINGS
 Global building emissions responsible for 8% total emissions in 2002
(3.36 GtCO2e) - 11.7 GtCO2e if energy to run buildings is included.
SMART BUILDINGS

Technologies used to make the
design, construction and operations
of buildings more efficient,
applicable to both new and existing
property.

Building management systems
(BMS) run heating and cooling
systems.

Software to switch off PCs,
monitors and lights when not in
use.

Improved building design for
energy efficiency.
May 2010
18
SMART GRIDS
 Power sector responsible for 24% global emissions in 2002.
 Expected to be responsible for 14.26 GtCO2e in 2020.
SMART GRIDS

Smart meters – customer information on
energy use

Interactive energy generation

Advanced grid management systems

Demand management systems (dynamic
demand)

Reduce transmissions and distribution (T&D)
losses

Integration of renewables
May 2010
19
ITU-T and Climate Change:
Setting the Standard
 FG on ICT&CC concluded with 4 Deliverables in March 2009.
 Inputs from non-ITU members (e.g. academia) were also taken into
considerations
 Mandate of SG5 was expanded at the last TSAG (2830 April 2009)
 New SG 5 title: Environment and climate change
 SG5 created a new WP 3/5
 All SGs examining impact of recommendations on climate change
 SGs developing standards for new energy efficient technologies
 E.g. SG 13 on Next Generation Networks
 NGN estimated to be 40% more energy efficient
May 2010
20
Universal charger
 ITU standardized-approval
process for new
Recommendation L.1000
 Delivers 50% reduction in
standby energy consumption,
eliminates 51,000 ton of
redundant chargers, and cuts
GHG emissions by 13.6 million
ton CO2 annually
 Current version covers charger
for mobile terminals but will
cover other ICT devices in
future
May 2010
21
ITU-T: Building Knowledge on Climate
Change
 ITU-T issued major Technology Watch Reports on Climate
Change and positive impact of new technologies
 Next Generation Networks, Intelligent Transport Systems, etc.
 Organizing Major Symposia on ICT and CC
 2008: Kyoto and London
 2009: Quito and Seoul (virtual event)
 ITU-T pioneering energy efficient work methods
 Paperless meetings, on-line work tools, etc.
 ITU-T leading Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate
Change as part of IGF
May 2010
22