IT Could Help Meet G20 Carbon Targets, Says Analyst

In the final run-up to the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen this month, analyst IDC believes that bigger reductions in world-wide CO2 emissions could be achieved by smarter use of IT.

Around 5.8 billion tons (GT) of CO2 emissions could be eliminated by 2020 through the use of IT, the analyst firm will tell a press conference on 10th December in Copenhagen, where they UN talks are taking place between 7th and 18th December.

IDC has been drilling into the potential of technology to cut carbon emssions and will suggest 17 technologies that oculd make a difference, in economic sectors including energy generation and distribution, transport, and buildings.

The figure of 5.8 billion tonnes represents 20 percent of world CO2 output In 2004 (which was 27 billion tonnes), but as output rose to 31.5 billion tonnnes before 2008, the reduction would only produce something like a 5 percent reduction from the 2005 level, and the EU has committed to cut CO2 by 20 percent on that figure by 2020.

However, any practial contribution should be welcomed, said Roberta Bigliani, research director at IDC Energy Insights: “ICT will be an important source of practical solutions for reducing CO2 emissions in the G20 and many other countries. Any goals to reduce energy consumption, for example, will be accelerated by using network-based solutions as a foundation. Similarly, ICT can enable more effective monitoring and management of energy use in many key sectors of a nation’s economy. Although ICT is not a panacea, its full potential has not yet been put to use.”

IDC also announced that it has developed an ICT Sustainability Index that ranks the ability of the G20 nations to use ICT to reduce their CO2 emissions, which will also be released in Copenhagen.

“We now have the ability to share with the G20 a clear road map to improve energy management through the focused use of ICT,” said Vernon Turner, senior vice president of IDC’s Enterprise Infrastructure, Consumer and Telecom Research. “Our expectation is that the ICT Sustainability Index will draw attention to how this can be achieved on a national level.”

The news that the IDC will be highlighting the importance of IT in meeting climate targets should appease some critics who have warned that IT may not get the attention it deserves at the Copenhagen talks. In early November senior government advisers in the UK said that technology was being effectively left out of the UN event.

Without an awareness of the role of IT, plans discussed in Copenhagen run the risk of ignoring the actual methods we need to adopt to reduce emissions, said Catalina McGregor (left), founder of the UK government’s Green ICT delivery unit at the Green IT Expo earlier this month “We need IT on the COP15 agenda,” she said. “The funding door may close if it is not there.”

Other IT experts have also called for more focus on technology at the talks. Rob Conway, chief executive and member of the board, for mobile industry group the GSMA, has also called for the importance of technology to be noted in meeting any goals thrashed out in Copenhagen.

“The mobile industry could enable greenhouse gas emission reductions of 1,150 Mt CO2e in 2020 – twice the present emissions of the United Kingdom,” he said. “We will be calling upon governments at COP15 to ensure that mobile solutions are at the forefront of the global fight to prevent climate change and mitigate its consequences.”

Networking giant Cisco is one of the business sponsors of the UN event and is also providing teleconferencing technology to help some delegates remotely connect to experts not at the event.