Climate change: a role for ICTs

The United Nations is currently hosting a conference on climate change in Nairobi where world leaders, scientists, and civil society groups are hoping to save the planet from environmental disaster.

What's this got to do with information communication technologies (ICTs)? Well, apparently, strategic use of ICTs could mean a reduction of 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year in the first instance, with even greater savings to come.

A report - published by the European Telecommunications Networks Operators Association and WWF (an interesting partnership in itself) and entitled 'Saving the planet @ the speed of light' - spells out concrete ways in which the European Union could use ICTs to reduce carbon emissions, including:

• replace 20 per cent of business travel by video conferencing (22.3 million tonnes)
• one in ten employees become flexi-workers (22.2 million tonnes)
• half of EU workers replace one meeting with one audio conference a year (2.2 million tonnes)
• 100 million customers receive online phone bills (109,100 tonnes)
• 193 million web-based tax returns (195,000 tonnes)

It all adds up to a potentially massive contribution. As Stephen Young, principal analyst at the IT consultancy Ovum, says, it would be a real pity if these findings are not discussed in Nairobi.

[Image: Panos Pictures]