ICTs, ITU and Climate
Change
Arthur Levin, Head, Standardization Policy
Division (ITU-T)
Session 3: Hotter Topics
Fiji, 16 September 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
The views expressed in this presentation are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the ITU or its Membership.
Evidence for climate change
Source: IPCC 4th assessment report, 2007
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The Challenge in the Pacific
 Financing
 Who will pay the bill for using ICTS for adaptation and
mitigation
 Impact of CC is costly even though Pacific Islands are
not a major source of emissions
 Total GHG emissions of Pacific Island countries is around
0.03% of global total
 Typhoon/hurricane damage will increase by 10-26% for
each 1 degree warming of sea
 Half the population of island countries live with less than a
mile of their coastlines; coral atolls no more than 3 meters
above sea level
 Impact of CC on marine environment, particularly on
coral reefs, fisheries ad food security
 Global Humanitarian Forum estimates CC already killing
300,000 people annually (0.8C degree warming)
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Pacific Islands Forum: Call
to Action
 Statement of 6 August 2009
 Calls for post-2012 outcome to limit
increase in temperatures to 2 degrees
Celsius or less
 calls on developed economies to take the
lead and to slow and reduce emissions
 States to reduce global emissions by at
least 50% below 1990 level by 2050
 Global emission peak no later than 2020
4
Pacific Island Commitments
 Fiji: electric authority to generate 90%
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of its needs from renewables by 2011
Tonga: expects to have 50% of
electricity from renewables by 2011
Tuvalu: target of 100% renewable
energy
Nauru: 50% renewable energy by 2015
Samoa: use wind and hydro to
increase renewable by 20% by 2030
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TOWARD A NEW GLOBAL FRAMEWORK
2007 COP-13 in Bali launched process for negotiation of new Agreement
 established AWGLCA (Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term
Cooperative Action) to develop work program
2008 AWGLCA meetings
 Bangkok (31 March–4 April)
 Bonn (2-13 June)
 Accra (21-27 August)
2009 Meeting of COP-14
 Poznan, Poland (1-12 December)
2009 COP-15 meets and expected to conclude Agreement
 Bonn (29 March-8 April)
 Bonn (1-12 June)
 Three further sessions will be held prior to Copenhagen: 10-14
August in Bonn (informal meeting); 28 September-9 October in
Bangkok and 2-6 November in Barcelona.
 Copenhagen (7-18 December)
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WTSA-08
 Resolution 73 on Climate Change
 Notes conclusion of GSS that ICT industry
can set an example by committing to
specific programs with objectives to
reduce overall GHG emissions
 Recognizes that ICTs can make a substantial
contribution and be a major factor to mitigate
the effects of climate change, for example
through energy-efficient devices, applications and
networks
 Resolves that CC is a high priority in ITU as part
of our contribution to UN processes and global efforts
to moderate climate change
 Resolves to promote adoption of recommendations
to ensure greater energy efficient of ICT
devices and reduce GHG emissions in all sectors
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WTPF – Opinion 3
 World Telecommunication and Policy Forum was held on 2224 April 2009 in Lisbon, Portugal
 Lisbon Consensus - Opinion 3 “ICT and the Environment”

Invited:
– the ITU Secretary-General
a)
to bring the content of Resolution 73 (WTSA-08) on
Information and communication technologies and climate change
to the attention of the ITU Council and take appropriate actions,
taking into consideration the United Nations commitment to lead
by example, to achieve climate-neutral status within three years;
b)
to continue, within the mandate of the ITU, to cooperate
and collaborate with other entities within the UN in formulating
future international efforts for the effective addressing of climate
change, and to report the results of these efforts to the Council;
– The Deputy Secretary-General and the Directors of the
Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, the
Radiocommunication Bureau and the Telecommunication
Development Bureau
a)
to continue to work together, and with relevant study
groups, to raise the awareness of these issues, especially in
developing countries, as work progresses in their respective
Sectors;
b)
to promote liaison with other relevant organizations in
order to avoid duplication of work and to optimize the use of
resources.
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ICTs as a cause of global warming
 ICTs (excluding
broadcasting)
contribute an
estimated 2-2.5%
of global
Greenhouse Gas
emissions
 Around 0.9
tonnes GtCO2e in
2007
 Telecoms
contributed
around one
quarter of this
total
Source: Gartner Group (2007)
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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
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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 1m CO2 tonnes
 Systemically, e.g., by “dematerialisation”
 Intelligent Transport Systems could reduce
vehicle carbon emissions below 130g per km
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Towards a climate
neutral ICT sector
 NTT’s “Total Power Revolution” saved 124m
kWh in 2007
 BT has reduced carbon emissions by 60%
compared since 1996
 Telefonica created a Climate Change Office
and is committed to reducing its consumption
of network electricity by 30 per cent by 2015.
 Other initiatives:
 GeSI, Green Grid, WattWatt, FTTH Council Europe,
EU codes of conduct, CBI Task Force etc
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Using ICTs for carbon
abatement / displacement
 Reducing / substituting for travel
 In 2007, Telstra held 7’500 video conferences saving 4’200
tonnes of CO2
 Flexible work arrangements
 Each one million EU workers could save one million tonnes
of CO2 annually by telecommuting
 Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)
 In-car systems to assist in “eco-driving” can reduce CO2 emissions
by up to 20 per cent
 Dematerialization (replacing atoms with bits)
 ITU-T Recommendations Online save 105 million tonnes of CO2
annually compared with distribution of paper copies
Sources: Climate Risk report for Telstra, ETNO/WWF report, Toyota, ITU
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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
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Towards a climate-neutral ITU
 Developing a knowledge base and repository
 Positioning ITU as a strategic leader
 Promoting a global understanding through
international fora and agreements
 Achieving a climate-neutral ITU within three years
 Conducting annual carbon audits consistent with accepted
International Standards
 Reducing ITU’s own GHG emissions, e.g. through using
remote collaboration tools
 Compensating for residual emissions: e.g. supporting
projects under Clean Development Mechanism
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ITU-T: Building Knowledge on
Climate Change
 ITU-T issued TECHWATCH Reports on CC 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
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ITU Challenges
 Develop a methodology to measure
impact of ICTs as part of national
GHG reduction programs
 Identify priority sectors where ICTs
can reduce emissions (e.g. smart
buildings
 Grow the ICT industry in an
environmentally friendly manner
 Disposal of ICTs
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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
(28-30 April 2009)
 New SG5 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
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Deliverables: FG on
ICT&CC
 Deliverable 1: Definition
 Defines the terms needed to analyze the major
relationships between ICTs and Climate Change
 Deliverable 2: Gap analysis and standards
roadmap
 Shows ongoing work (done by ITU, other standard
bodies, universities, etc.) and future study issues
 Deliverable 3: Methodologies
 Covers the assessment of ICT sector’s emission over the
entire life cycle of ICT devices
 Also covers reducing other sector’s emission by the use
of ICT
 Deliverable 4: Direct and Indirect Impact of ITU
Standards
 Provides tools and guidelines to evaluate the reduction
of emission of ICT sector and of other sector by the use
of ICT
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WP3/5 structure
 Chairman: Keith Dickerson(UK)
 Vice Chairmen: Eunsook Kim (Korea) and
Takeshi Origuchi (Japan)
Rapporteur
Associate Rapporteur
Q17/5
Paolo Gemma (China)
Franz Zichy (US)
Q18/5
Jean Manuel Canet (France)
Takafumi Hashitani (Japan)
Q19/5
Kaoru Asakura (Japan)
Didier Marquet (France) (Acting)
Q20/5
Gilbert Buty (France)
Dave Faulkner (UK)
Q21/5
Didier Marquet (France) &
Julio Cesar (Brazil)
Xia Zhang (China) & Paulo
Curado (Brazil)
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New and revised Questions
 Q14/5(revised): Guides and terminology on
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environment and climate change
Q17/5(new): Coordination and Planning of
ICT&CC related standardization
Q18/5(new): Methodology of environmental
impact assessment of ICT
Q19/5(new): Power feeding systems
Q20/5(new): Data collection for Energy Efficiency
for ICTs over the lifecycle
Q21/5(continuation of Q.19/15): Environmental
protection and recycling of ICT
equipments/facilities
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Joint Coordination Activity
(JCA)
 Established at the last TSAG meeting (28-30 April
2009)
 Objectives:
 To co-ordinate across ITU-T SGs (in particular SGs 5, 9,
13, 15 and 16), and with ITU-R and ITU-D.
 To seek co-operation from external bodies including nonITU member organizations
 Convener
 Mr. Ahmed Zeddam (France)
 Co-convener
 Mr. Dave Faulkner (UK)
 Invitations for the first meeting during the next
SG5 meeting (Oct. 2009) to various bodies to be
sent shortly
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“Climate Change is a global challenge that the
world cannot lose.”
Dr Hamadoun I. Touré
ITU Secretary-General, 13 November 2008
“Climate change is the defining challenge of our
era.
ITU’s work to cut greenhouse gas emissions,
develop standards and use ‘e-environment’
systems can speed up the global shift to a lowcarbon economy.
Ban Ki-moon
United Nations Secretary-General, 12 November
2008
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Some
Background
Materials
 ITU Climate Change site
www.itu.int/climate
 Climate Change symposia website
 www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange
 Technology Watch Briefing Reports
 www.itu.int/ITU-T/techwatch/reports.html
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