Talking About Green

[One of the greatest challenges facing the planet is global warming.Governments around the world are wrestling with various strategies on howto reduce our collective carbon footprint. Carbon taxes are seen as thebest solution, but are meeting with stiff political resistanceparticularly with the recent dramatic increases in gasoline prices. Capand trade systems are the other preferred approach, but also havesignificant uncertainties in terms of their actual ability to reduce CO2emissions.

However, over the past couple of months a couple of new studies indicatethat the Internet and ICT can possibly have a bigger impact in reducingCO2 than either carbon taxes and cap and trade systems.  There is noquestion that the Internet and ICT will play an important role in reducingCO2 emissions, but the surprising development is the degree to which theInternet and ICT might contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases.

The first indication of the new found importance of the Internet and ICTin reducing CO2 emissions was an economic modeling study done by Dr YujiINOUE,  President & CEO The Japanese Telecommunication TechnologyCommittee, the results of which he presented at the ITU Summit on Green ITin Kyoto this past April.

http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/oth/06/0F/T060F0060080025PDFE.pdf.

Dr Inoue demonstrated that it is possible for Japan to reach 90% of itsKyoto targets strictly through the application of ICT.   As with alleconomic forecasting models there are lot of untested and unprovenassumptions, and this study is no different. But even if the applicationof Dr Inoue’s models only result in 50%  or even 25% of the Kyoto targets,this is still a very, very significant development, and means that ICTwill still have the biggest impact in reducing CO2 emissions compared toany other conventional approach such as carbon taxes and cap and trade.

The other study that indicates the significance of Internet and ICT wasjust published by the Climate Group and the Global e-SustainabilityInitiative (GeSI)and states that "The Smarter technology use could reduceglobal emissions by 15 per cent and save global industry $US 800 billionin annual energy costs by 2020.

http://www.theclimategroup.org/news_and_events/news_and_comment/smart2020pressrelease

The report – SMART 2020: enabling the low carbon economy in theinformation age – is the world’s first comprehensive global study of theInformation and Communication Technology (ICT) sector’s growingsignificance for the world’s climate.

The report’s supporting analysis, conducted independently by internationalmanagement consultants McKinsey & Company, shows that while ICT’s ownsector footprint - currently two per cent of global emissions - willalmost double by 2020, ICT’s unique ability to monitor and maximise energyefficiency both within and outside of its own sector could cut CO2emissions byup to five times this amount. This represents a saving of 7.8 Giga-tonnesof carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) by 2020 –greater than the currentannual emissions of either the US or China.

Although tele-working, video-conferencing, e-paper, and e-commerce areincreasingly commonplace, the report notes that replacing physicalproducts and services with their virtual equivalents (dematerialisationand substitution) is only one part (six per cent) of the estimated lowcarbon benefits the ICT sector can deliver."

One of the biggest contribution to reducing CO2 emissions by Internet andICT is through “virtualization” or “de-materialization” of existingphysical products and services.  For business and universities  this meansfirst virtualizing all their existing computers, databases and laboratoryequipment and using grids, clouds or  “virtual” instances of the sameequipment at zero carbon data centers located at distant renewable energysites. It also means adapting new business process and procedures thateliminate as much as possible the manufacturing and shipping of goods aswell as employee or researcher travel.

For consumers, this means delivery of movies, music, books and otherproducts as electronic equivalents delivered over broadband networks. Theelimination of power hungry PCs and printers to be replaced by solarpowered PDAs or similar devices is also essential. It also means thedevelopment of new incentive and reward programs using electronic productsand service to reward consumers to reduce their carbon footprint in otheraspects of their daily life from driving the car to heating or coolingtheir home.

If we adopt these techniques now it might be possible to achieve 50-90% ofthe reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that is required by 2020 to keepthe global temperature increase under 2C.  For more details and otherdetailed estimates  please see my blog athtt://green-broad.blogspot.com--BSA]