ITU - Climate Change

18 June 2013 - Calling all smart sustainable city enthusiasts

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:38:43 +0000

Today it is estimated that 65 per cent of the worlds population live in cities, with the number set to grow as 1.3 million people move into urban areas every week. This migration has contributed to the rise of megacities, of which there were only three in 1975, now 21 and rising. Experts predict that by 2050 more than 6 billion people will live in urban areas.

To face the challenge of this growing population and meet the rising demand of resources and services, cities need to move towards a path of sustainable growth and development, while remaining respectful of the environment. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be the driver for such solutions.

And here is where you come in...

Now in its third year, ITU and Telefónica are delighted to again present their Green ICT Application Challenge, inviting developers to submit the best and most innovative Concept Paper for an ICT application to help build Smart Sustainable Cities and achieve environmental sustainability in urban areas.

Ideas for topic areas are:

Energy management
Water management and sanitation
Waste management
Transport and mobility
Urban planning, including smart buildings
Adaptation to climate change
Smart societies, community engagement and environmental education

The challenge is open to individuals from ITU Member States, and the author of the best and most innovative Concept Paper for an ICT Application will be awarded a 5,000 USD cash prize in Madrid, Spain on 18 September 2013 during the 3rd ITU Green Standards Week.

But hurry submission ends on 30 June 2013 at 12:00 PM CET.

For more information please click here

Learn more about ITU-Ts work on ICTs, the environment and climate change here.

14 June 2013 - Durban events focus on spam, e-waste and the outcomes of WTSA and WCIT

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 08:16:34 +0000

An upcoming Joint ATU-ITU Seminar on the outcomes of the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-12) and the World Conference on International Telecommunications ( WCIT-12) will offer Africas ICT executives and policy makers an insight into the meaning and significance of these conferences outcomes with a view to ensuring their effective implementation. The event will be preceded by two workshops geared towards key directives issued by WTSA-12 and WCIT-12, that of countering spam and ensuring the eco-friendly management of e-waste. The two full-day workshops are free of charge and open to all interested parties, including non-members of ITU.

The three events will be hosted by South Africas Department of Communications at the International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa:

ITU Workshop onCountering and Combating Spam, 8 July 2013.
ITU Workshop on Environmentally Sound Management of e-Waste, 9 July 2013.
Joint ATU-ITU Seminar on the outcomes of WTSA-12 and WCIT-12, organized by the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) and ITU, 10-11 July 2013.

The 2012 meeting of ITU-Ts main decision-making body, WTSA, adopted the first-ever Resolutions on e-health, software-defined networking and e-waste. ITU-T also saw its mandate re-emphasized and strengthened in crucial areas such as accessibility, climate change, and conformity and interoperability, along with encouragement for the greater participation of academia.

WCIT-12s revision of the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) was especially relevant to ITU-T, with the new treaty requiring Member States to encourage the application of relevant ITU-T Recommendations in areas including Quality of Service (QoS), numbering, international calling line identification, international roaming, emergency communications, countering spam, energy-efficiency, e-waste and accessibility. WCIT-12 also called on ITU-T to study the regulatory, technical and economic issues which need to be addressed in the transition from dedicated phone and data networks to converged IP-based networks.

The workshop on Countering and Combating Spam responds to Article 7 of the new ITRs on unsolicited bulk electronic communications which encourages Member States to cooperate in taking necessary measures to prevent the propagation of spam and minimize its impact on international telecommunication services.

The workshop on the Environmentally Sound Management of e-Waste responds to Article 8 of the new ITRs which encourages Member States to adopt energy-efficiency and e-waste best practices, taking into account relevant ITU-T Recommendations. WTSA-12 offered another boost to ITUs mandate in this arena by agreeing a new Resolution on e-waste; giving further impetus to ITUs standardization work on the subject and requesting ITUs standardization and development sectors, ITU-T and ITU-D, to assist Member States in instituting policy frameworks that limit e-wastes negative environmental effects. It also instructs ITU-T Study Group 5 to develop Recommendations, methodologies and other publications relating to handling and controlling e-waste as well as methods of treating it.

10 June 2013 - TSAG delivers new focus group on smart water management

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:32:49 +0000

The recent meeting of the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) has seen the launch of a new Focus Group to hasten standards development in the key area of Smart Water Management.

The formation of the Focus Group on Smart Water Management (FG-SWM) responds to the Luxor Call to Action emanating from a workshop held in Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013.

The event highlighted the necessity of a multi-stakeholder approach to the development of smart water-management systems; one that incorporates the views of irrigation, agriculture, environment and communications ministries as well as those of the ICT industry and relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

FG-SWM is expected to carry out the following specific tasks:

Collect and document information on national, regional and international smart water management initiatives; reporting on current activities and technical specifications.
Specify the roles to be played by ICTs in smart water management.
Develop a list mapping key stakeholders involved in the area of ICTs and smart water management.
Develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess the impact achieved through the use of ICTs in water-management systems.
Develop a set of methodologies for estimating the impact of ICTs on water conservation.
Identify water-management ICT applications and services with the potential to ensure interoperability and the benefits of economies of scale.
Draft technical reports that address standardization gaps and identify new standardization work items to be taken up by its parent group, ITU-T Study Group 5 (Environment and climate change).

The new Focus Group will work in close collaboration with the Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities (FG-SSC) established in February 2013 (read an earlier newslog article on the formation of FG-SSC here).

Learn more about ITU-Ts work on ICTs, the environment and climate change here.

22 May 2013 - European Commission backs ITU eco-impact methodologies

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:29:19 +0000

The ITU-T L.1410 and L.1420 Recommendations to assess the environmental impacts of ICTs are among 10 international methodologies to have been pilot-tested in Europes bid to establish and converge around a common international framework to assess the energy and emission footprint of the ICT sector.

Recommendation ITU-T L.1410 Methodology for environmental impacts of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) goods, networks and services provides a standardized way to assess the direct environmental impact of ICT goods, networks and services, as well as their indirect impact on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of non-ICT industry sectors. It is based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology standardized in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.

ITU-T L. 1420 Methodology for energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions impact assessment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in organizations standardizes the requirements with which an organization should comply when assessing energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is based on ISO 14064-1.

In a study led by the European Commission, 27 leading ICT companies and associations engaged in a 10-month trial of measurement methodologies developed by entities including international standards development organizations (SDOs) such as ITUs Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), ISO, IEC, ETSI and the GHG Protocol.

The study was commissioned by the European Commissions DG CONNECT as part of its ICT Footprint initiative which aims to test the workability and compatibility of footprinting methodologies in the ICT sector, with the overarching goal of building consensus and engendering convergence around a common methodological framework for the measurement of the energy consumption and carbon emissions arising from the production, transport and selling processes of ICT goods, networks and services.

The results of the study are detailed in a report titled ICT Footprint: Pilot testing on methodologies for energy consumption and caron footprint of the ICT-sector.

The pilots recognized Recommendation ITU-T L.1420 as the only available international reporting methodology to assess ICT-related energy consumption and/or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in ICT organizations as well as ICT-related activities within non-ICT organizations.

As regards products, networks and services, similarities were found between Recommendation ITU-T L.1410 and ETSI TS 103 199 "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of ICT equipment, networks and services: General methodology and common requirements with the goal to develop a common ITU-T/ETSI Methodology for ICT products, networks and services".

The report concludes by recommending actions through which policy makers, SDOs and industry can accelerate the drive towards a common international ICT-footprinting framework. The pilot-testing has proven that the work performed by ITU-T is resulting in robust deliverables and should be leveraged as a basis for future enhancements.

Acting on suggestions from the pilot-testing report, ITU-T Study Group 5 (Environment and climate change) and the ETSI Technical Committee on Environmental Engineering (ETSI TC EE) are collaborating on the revision of their respective standards, Recommendation ITU-T L. 1410 and ETSI TS 103 199.

A first meeting between the two expert groups will discuss a roadmap for this collaboration. Kindly hosted by ETSI, the meeting will be held in Sophia Antipolis, France, 27-31 May 2013. Details can be found here.

09 May 2013 - Smart sustainable cities need holistic approach, say global stakeholders

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:32:21 +0000

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have a crucial role to play in tackling the developmental challenges facing the cities that are becoming our primary choice of habitation in the 21st century, concluded participants attending the 8th ITU Symposium on ICT and Environment Change, held in Turin, 6-7 May.

An estimated 65% of the worlds population now lives in cities. With an additional 1.3 million people moving from rural to urban areas every week, by 2050 more than six billion people will be living in urban agglomerations. In addition, the size of conurbations continues to grow, with the number of mega-cities of over 10 million inhabitants growing from just two in 1950 to 22 by 2015, 17 of which will be located in the developing world.

The symposium highlighted the importance of a globally coordinated approach and internationally standardized technologies in the creation of new smart sustainable cities. Greater integration of ICTs into urban planning will greatly facilitate opportunities for economic growth and social well-being, from better access to education and healthcare through to improved prospects of employment and living standards. The symposium concluded by issuing a call for stronger advocacy at the international level and for ICT policies to be integrated into the ongoing dialogues on urban development within the UN and other organizations.

Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General, ITU, Rapid urbanization and high-density populations foment innovation and economic growth but also give rise to social, economic and environmental challenges, as cities infrastructures develop slower than the influx of new inhabitants. ICTs can make our cities safer, cleaner, and more convenient places to live.

Full press release

18 April 2013 - ITU called on to enable smart water management

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:54:59 +0000

Participants in an ITU workshop held for the benefit of government and private-sector technology leaders in the Nile River Basin have agreed a Call to Action which charges ITU with mobilizing its global membership to enable smart water management.

The smart integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in water networks adds communication, monitoring, analysis and control capabilities, increasing efficiency and reliability in water supply, improving delivery of water to crucial sectors like agriculture and health, and reducing water consumption and waste.

The ITU workshop ICT as an enabler for smart water management, was held in Luxor, Egypt, from 14-15 April 2013, hosted by Egypts Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The event was the first of its kind, and reflects the growing importance and acceleration of smart-water standardization work in ITUs Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T).

Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: The importance of sufficient supplies of good quality water is recognized in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), one of which is to halve the number of people without safe access to water by 2015. One of the many ways in which ICT will be central to the post-2015 development agenda is through supporting greater agility and efficiency in water management frameworks.

Full press release

17 April 2013 - 8th ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:54:00 +0000

Smart Sustainable Cities is the theme of the 8th ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change to be held in Turin, Italy, 6-7 May 2013. The free of charge event is open to all and will bring together a global selection of specialists in the field from top policy makers to thought leaders in business, engineering, standardization and research to critique recent efforts in the development of smart cities and to determine the best path forward in the task of leveraging ICTs to enhance cities environmental sustainability.

The 2013 Symposium is organized by ITU in partnership with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and will be hosted by Telecom Italia at its innovation laboratories in Turin. The event builds on the success of previous Symposia held from 2008 to 2012 in Kyoto, London, Quito, Seoul, Cairo, Accra and Montreal.

The upcoming Turin Symposium will address challenges and opportunities associated with the transition to a greener, more resource-efficient global economy through mitigation and adaptation to climate change; tackling e-waste; disaster preparedness; methodologies to assess the environmental impacts of ICTs; and cost-effective ICTs to empower smart cities and societies. Items on the Symposiums agenda include:

Energy efficiency, clean power and the smart grid as engines for urban sustainable growth
Assessing environmental impacts in cities
Integrated ICT solutions for smart sustainable cities and empowered citizens
Tackling e-waste and solid waste issues in cities
ICTs to monitor the climateClimate change adaptation and emergency telecommunications in urban areas
Smart sustainable cities

The Symposium will be held in conjunction with the first meeting of the ITU-T Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities, 8 May 2013, and a Workshop on Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields, 9 May 2013.

Find more information on the Symposium including details of how to register here.

03 April 2013 - New Agenda seeks to transform e-waste into opportunity

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:52:30 +0000

Geneva, 3 April 2013 Representatives of Central American governments, private companies, universities and non-governmental organizations have agreed on a 20-point Agenda aiming to promote advances in the handling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or e-waste) in the region. Key will be the application and identification of business models that leverage recycling opportunities and create new employment.

The new Agenda was agreed by the 86 participants in the ITU/UNEP Workshop for Capacity Building on Environmentally Responsible Management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), organized in San Salvador, March 19-21 with the support of ITU Sector Member Telefónica.

The Agenda emphasizes increased collaboration between all parties, as well as the development of online learning programmes and workshops aimed at policy-makers. It calls on ITU and UNEP/PACE to assist Central America and the Caribbean in the development of regulations, legislation and international standards to mitigate e-wastes potentially damaging effects on the environment and the health of local populations.

Full press release

28 March 2013 - Egypt to host first ITU Smart Water event

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:43:31 +0000

An upcoming ITU workshop on ICT as an Enabler for Smart Water Management will be held in Luxor, Egypt on 14-15 April 2013.

Economic growth, seasonal climatic conditions and rising population are all affecting availability of water resources. Moreover, a number of effects linked to climate change, such as lengthy droughts and extreme weather events, are worsening the situation. Water shortages are at the core of many of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), one of which is to reduce by half the number of people without safe access to water by 2015. According to the UN World Water Development Report, by 2050, at least one in four people is likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of freshwater.

ICT provides a unique opportunity for water stakeholders to obtain information in near real-time about a number of physical and environmental variables such as temperature, soil moisture levels and rainfall through web enabled sensors and communication networks. Smart metering technologies can also provide individuals, businesses and water companies with information about their own water use, thus raising awareness about usage, locating leakages and having better control over water demand.

Organized by ITU at the kind invitation of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Egypt this first ITU workshop to address this serious topic will address a number of issues including: weather forecasting; technological solutions and standards; smart metering; climate smart agriculture; water governance, institutions and regulations; stakeholder engagement; and planning water resources and land use.

It will result in a Call For Action for countries in the Nile River Basin area to implement best practices for smart water management in agriculture, consumption in cities, river flow forecasting to prevent calamities such as flooding and identification of leakages in the water distribution network.

More.

26 February 2013 - Central American workshop to promote environmentally sound e-waste management

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:41:31 +0000

San Salvador, El Salvador will host a Central American Workshop for Capacity Building on Environmentally Sound Management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), 19-21 March 2013. The workshop will provide training on the application of global best practices in environmentally responsible e-waste management, covering e-wastes collection, repair, refurbishment, recycling and disposal.

Electrical and electronic waste (known as WEEE or e-waste) is the worlds fastest-growing source of waste. Eco-friendly disposal and recycling mechanisms will mitigate e-wastes negative environmental and health effects, but will also create new employment opportunities while recycling critical raw materials and decreasing resource-dependency.

The upcoming workshop is organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Secretariat of the Basel, Stockholm and Rotterdam Conventions (SBSR), a body administered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The event is organized in partnership with the Basel Convention Regional Center for Central America and Mexico (BCRC-CAM); the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD); the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of El Salvador (MARN); the Central American Regional Technical Commission on Telecommunications (COMTELCA); the Salvadoran General Superintendency for Electricity and Telecommunications (SIGET); and the Partnership for Action on Computing Equipment (PACE) established under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.

The workshop is the first joint training activity undertaken by ITU and SBSR, and participation is free of charge.

The event will outline e-waste management methods detailed by ITUs international standards (ITU-T Recommendations) and ITUs Toolkit on End of Life Management for ICT Equipment.

The workshop will also present PACEs Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) Criteria Recommendations; its Guideline on Environmentally Sound Testing, Refurbishment and Repair of Used Computing Equipment; its Guideline on Environmentally Sound Material Recovery/Recycling of End-of-Life Computing Equipment; and its Guidance on Transboundary Movement (TBM) of Used and End-of-Life Computing Equipment.

Other sessions will discuss the role that standards and policies play in tackling e-waste by encouraging the application of global environmental best practices and by underscoring the implementation of national and regional e-waste management strategies.

The workshop will conclude with a session inviting equipment manufacturers, government representatives and leading e-waste recycling specialists to discuss the development of Central Americas sub-regional systems for e-wastes repair, refurbishment, recycling and disposal.

The workshop will be conducted in English and Spanish.

More information on the workshop, including a provisional programme and an online registration form, can be found here

More information on ITU-T activities on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change can be found here

12 February 2013 - ITU establishes Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:54:03 +0000

ITU-T has established a new Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities to assess the standardization requirements of cities aiming to boost their social, economic and environmental sustainability through the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their infrastructures and operations.

ITU-T Study Group 5 Environment and climate change agreed the formation of the new Focus Group at its meeting in Geneva, 29 January to 7 February 2013.

The creation of the Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities answers a Call to Action on Smart Sustainable Cities proposed in September 2012 at ITUs 2^nd Green Standards Week in Paris. Smart Sustainable Cities is also the theme of ITUs 3^rd Green ICT Application Challenge.

Cities are powerful engines of economic growth, fuelled by intensive interpersonal communication and high concentrations of specialized skills. Urbanizations advantages are however mirrored by significant sustainability challenges, with cities today accounting for over 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 60-80 per cent of global energy consumption.

Given that an estimated 70 per cent of the worlds population will live in cities by 2050, sustainable urbanization has become a key policy point to administrations across the world. Here ICTs have a crucial role to play by increasing environmental efficiency across industry sectors and enabling such innovations as intelligent transport systems (ITS) and "smart" water, energy and waste management.

The Focus Group will act as an open platform for smart-city stakeholders such as municipalities; academic and research institutes; non-governmental organizations (NGOs); and ICT organizations, industry forums and consortia to exchange knowledge in the interests of identifying the standardized frameworks needed to support the integration of ICT services in smart cities.

Focus Group leadership team:

Chairman
- Silvia Guzman, Telefónica

Vice-Chairmen
- Pablo Bilbao, Federation Argentina de Municipios

- Flavio Cucchietti, Telecom Italia

- Sekhar Kondepudi, National University of Singapore

- Nasser Saleh Al Marzouqi, UAE

- Franz Zichy, USA

- Ziqin Sang, Fiberhome Technologies Group

Specific tasks and deliverables of the Focus Group include:

- Defining the role of ICTs in environmentally sustainable smart cities, and identifying the ICT systems necessary to the development of a Smart Sustainable City.

- Collecting and documenting information on existing smart city initiatives and technical specifications, focusing in particular on the identification of standardization gaps.

- Identifying or developing a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to gauge the success of smart-city ICT deployments.

- Establishing relationships and liaison mechanisms with other bodies engaged in smart-city studies and development.

- Identifying future smart-city standardization projects to be undertaken by its parent group, ITU-T Study Group 5.

- Developing a roadmap for the ICT sectors contribution to Smart Sustainable Cities, providing cohesion to the development and application of technologies and standards.

The meeting also agreed first-stage approval (consent) of the latest addition to ITU-Ts L.1400 series of standardized methodologies to assess the environmental impact of ICTs. The consent adds ICT projects to the list of ICT deployment scenarios covered by ITU-Ts environmental impact assessment methodologies. The new methodology (ITU-T L.1430) provides a framework to measure reductions in GHG emissions and energy consumption resulting from implementations of ICT projects including smart buildings, smart transport, and telepresence or videoconferencing services.

More information on ITU-T, Environment and Climate Change here

01 February 2013 - 3rd Green ICT Application Challenge: Deadline extended

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:06:33 +0000

The submission deadline for the 3rd Green ICT Application Challenge has been extended from 30 April to 30 June 2013. The Challenge has also welcomed new supporters in the United Nations University (UNU), Solving the e-Waste Problem (StEP) and BlueVia.

Organized by ITU in partnership with Telefónica, the Challenge will award a prize of 5,000 USD to the creator of the app that best promotes Smart Sustainable Cities and environmental sustainability in urban areas.

Developers can submit concepts individually or as part of a team. Submissions must be original and should deal with one of the following subjects: transport and mobility; management of energy, water, health services or waste; adaptation to climate change; town planning, including smart buildings; and smart sustainable societies, community participation and environmental education.

The winner will be selected according to criteria including impact, scalability, the degree of innovation, feasibility, the quality of the implementation plan and the business model. In addition, priority will be given to applications that can help developing countries to solve environmental problems in an urban context.

The Challenge launched 20 December 2012. Full Press Release here

16 October 2012 - ITU universal power adapter for wider range of ICTs

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 07:11:19 +0000

ITU members have agreed first-stage approval (consent) of a new Universal Power Adapter standard for devices such as modems, set-top boxes, home networking equipment and fixed telephones.

ITU-T Study Group 5 Environment and climate change consented the new draft Recommendation ITU-T L.1001 standardizing the requirements of External universal power adapter (UPA) solutions for ICT equipment for stationary use.

The standard will complement ITUs very successful Universal Charging Solution for mobile devices (Recommendation ITU-T L.1000); enacting further energy savings, reductions in e-waste and heightened consumer convenience by expanding the concepts application to the vast majority of ICT devices.

As with ITU-T L.1000, ITU-T L.1001 will also work to the benefit of countries not equipped with reliable AC grids as it will be compatible with standalone AC produced by renewable energy sources including the 5V and 12V power interfaces of small photovoltaic systems (solar energy).

Recommendation ITU-T L.1001 will reduce the number of power adapters manufactured by widening the range of compatible devices, facilitating their reuse and recycling, and increasing their build-quality and resilience to overvoltages in such a way that UPAs will enjoy a lifespan of no less than 10 years. By serving more ICT devices, over an increased lifespan, the standardized adapters will drive substantial reductions in energy consumption, limit device duplication, reduce strain on raw materials and enable enormous reductions in e-waste.

A study carried out by the University of Genoa, commissioned by ITU and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) estimates that the widespread adoption of an energy-efficient UPA solution will eliminate an estimated 300,000 tonnes of e-waste annually. In addition, the study shows it could reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of external power supplies by between 25 and 50 per cent. The report outlining the findings of the study is available here

The new standard includes basic configurations and general requirements of UPAs and their interfaces: cable; connectors; voltage; current; ripple; noise; energy efficiency; safety; electromagnetic compatibility; resistibility and eco-environmental specifications. The UPAs are designed for ICT devices in peoples homes, and provide a low-voltage input to a device by converting the AC mains voltage to a low-voltage DC output.
Future capabilities of the standard could include compatibility with a DC interface from renewable energy systems or power sockets found in transportation systems (boats, trains, planes, buses, etc.).

For more on the work of ITU-T Study Group 5, please see the groups webpage here

More on ITU-Ts activities on ICTs, the environment and climate change here

26 September 2012 - ICT stakeholders set out carbon commitments

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:03:53 +0000

Paris Declaration urges ITU to take lead in global green ICT strategies

Geneva, 24 September 2012 Industry leaders outlined their commitment to a green agenda with a Declaration issued at the end of ITUs Green Standards Week which was organized together with TechAmerica Europe and hosted by Microsoft in Paris. Agreed by over 150 participants from the private and public sectors, the document includes carbon commitments from leading ICT companies including: Alcatel-Lucent; AT&T; Cisco; Dell; Fujitsu; Hewlett Packard; Huawei; Infosys; Intel; KPN; Microsoft; Nokia Siemens Networks; Orange, Telecom Italia and Telefónica.

Full press release

20 September 2012 - Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Information & Communications Technologies (ICTs): the Case of Ghana

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:17:43 +0000

ITU, the Ministry of Communications of Ghana, the National Communications Authority of Ghana and the Environmental Protection Agency of Ghana, in cooperation with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, have published a report Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Information & Communications Technologies (ICTs): the Case of Ghana.

The report written by Angelica Valeria Ospina (University of Manchester), Cristina Bueti (ITU), Keith Dickerson and David Faulkner (Climate Associates), focuses on exploring an increasingly important question: How can developing countries effectively integrate ICT tools within climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies?

Ghanas experience, illustrated in the report, demonstrates that ICTs can help developing countries to unlock those opportunities, and overcome the challenges posed by climate change through e-enabled adaptation and mitigation responses.

The contribution of this report is two-fold. It presents the potential of ICTs towards adaptation and mitigation through the concrete case of Ghana, illustrating the challenges and opportunities faced by developing countries in this field. The report complements this analysis by offering concrete lessons learned and practical suggestions aimed at developing country decision makers and practitioners, thus fostering the adoption of novel, ICT-supported approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation.

The case of Ghana represents a successful model to be replicated in other developing countries to build resilience against climate change using ICTs.

20 September 2012 - Boosting Energy Efficiency through Smart Grids

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:13:36 +0000

In support of the International Year for Sustainable Energy for All, ITU together with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and the University of Genoa has issued a new report, Boosting energy efficiency through Smart Grids. This report, which was officially launched at the second ITU Green Standards Week held in Paris, France on 17-21 September, details how information and communication technologies (ICT) help mitigate climate change by making energy management more efficient.

ICTs represent the pillars for the development of a smarter electric grid, which can help meet the challenge of delivering electricity more efficiently and reliably in our societies and extending the reach of electrical services to worldwide regions that are still excluded.

This report gives a brief understanding about the possible path toward green ICT, which is the implementation of power-aware and conscious devices for communication and information management, say Franco Davoli, Matteo Repetto, University of Genoa, Italy; Carlo Tornelli, Gianluigi Proserpio, RSE, Milan, Italy and Flavio Cucchietti, Telecom Italia, authors of the report.

Smart grids also represent an opportunity for developing countries in the deployment of new electricity infrastructure by enabling more efficient operation and lower costs, allowing them to manage peak demand and to prevent electricity theft.

ITUT Study Group 5 (Environment and climate change) is encouraged to take the lead and work in cooperation with the major standardization bodies in the ICT and electrical fields to provide standardized directives on design and power-saving requirements for next-generation ICT devices and installations.

20 September 2012 - Guidance on Green ICT Procurement

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:09:35 +0000

ITU together with the European Telecommunications Network Operators association (ETNO) has launched a new report giving Guidance on Green ICT Procurement.

The report was launched during the forum on Environmental Sustainability for the ICT Sector, which took place on 20 September 2012 in Paris (France) as part of the second ITU Green Standards Week.

This report aims at guiding ICT companies in adopting sustainable business practices.

Aimee Torres, ITU consultant, author of the report: ICT companies have the power and legitimacy to innovate, transform and dematerialize the economy, but the increasing proliferation of information and communication technologies has raised concerns about the environmental consequences of these technologies All kinds of business practices and procurement decisions should, and can, be made with a greener perspective.

The report proposes a structured step-by-step procurement process, outlining green principles to be applied by the ICT industry when procuring goods, products and services, answering the questions: How to buy? What to buy? Whom to buy from?

To achieve effective procurement practices, the author reiterates the need to foster effective standardization in these processes.

A structured mapping and step-by-step application of standardized procurementprocesses analysis can enable ICT organizations to simplify their procedures, meet the goals of the organization and assess the environmental impact through the inclusion of energy, environment and carbon criteria in their purchasing activities.

This report shows ICT companies a way to incorporate green thinking considerations in every step of their procurement process.

20 September 2012 - Review of Mobile Handset Eco-Rating Schemes

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:05:41 +0000

A Review of Mobile Handset Eco-Rating Schemes was another of a raft of reports launched at the second Green Standards Week in Paris this week. The publication outlines eco-ratings schemes developed by mobile telecommunication operators to measure the sustainability and environmental performance of their products to consumers.

Achieving environmental sustainability is one of the major challenges of our times. To support the behavioral change of consumers towards more sustainable purchasing, industries have developed schemes to provide information on a products relative sustainability, especially with regard to environmental aspects.

These eco-rating schemes generally cover three broad categories the company, the supply chain and the device itself.

This report shows that there is no scheme that could be considered a perfect view of sustainability; however, each does attempt to provide a broad perspective of the sustainability impact of the manufacture, use and disposal of a mobile handset.

Based on this study, areas that eco-rating schemes should consider as best practice are identified. To drive further improvements, ITU-T Study Group 5 is encouraged to take the lead on integrating the best elements of each scheme into a single scheme to simplify the process for consumers, mobile operators and manufacturers.

20 September 2012 - Greening ICT Supply Chains Survey on Conflict Minerals Due Diligence Initiatives

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:01:44 +0000

ITU together with the United Nations University (UNU) has launched a report containing results of a Survey on Conflict Minerals Due Diligence Initiatives.

The report Greening ICT Supply Chains Survey on Conflict Minerals Due Diligence Initiatives was launched during the forum on Greening ICT Supply Chain, which took place on 18 September 2012 in Paris, France as part of the second ITU GreenStandards Week.

International concern has been raised about the so-called Conflict Minerals issue,referring to minerals (namely tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) mined in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuses.

These minerals are key inputs for products of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry. Their sourcing from the African Great Lakes Region - one of the largest sources of these minerals - is taking place in the heart of two of the most important ecosystems on the planet: the Congo Basin Ecosystem and the Albertine Rift. Unsustainable management of how minerals are accessed, extracted, processed and transported can irreversibly endanger the surrounding environment.

While the conflict and human rights aspect of ICT supply chains originating from the African Great Lakes Region garners much of the current international attention, the environmental aspect has been overlooked.

This survey details existing initiatives (national and international legislation, as well as industry-, government- and multi-stakeholder led activities) aimed at providing the ICT sector with guidance to conduct due diligence on their supply chains to ensure that their sourcing of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold does not contribute to conflict and human rights violations and does not harm the environment.

20 September 2012 - ITU-GeSI report uncovers opportunity to decrease e-waste

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 06:47:23 +0000

External power supply standards to enable truckloads of efficiency gains Geneva

18 September 2012 - A new ITU-Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) report reveals that standards for the manufacture of external power supplies (EPS) could enhance their reliability and extend their lifecycle while decreasing their average weight by up to 30 per cent. This could eliminate 300,000 tonnes of e-waste annually, the report estimates. Putting this in context, this amount of waste, equivalent to sixty per cent of current annual EPS e-waste, would form a 300km truck-jam, every year.

Full press release

06 September 2012 - Green Standards Week high level participants confirmed: Register now

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:33:29 +0000

The high-level segment of ITUs second Green Standards Week will take place on 19 September and will feature a host of ICT key players and ministers.

Among those speaking are Jean-Philippe Courtois, President, Microsoft International; H.E. Mr. Tryphon Kin-Kiey Mulumba, Ministre des Postes, Télécommunications et Nouvelles Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication, République Démocratique du Congo and H.E. Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications, Ghana. The full list can be found here.

The High-Level Segment (HLS) will provide ministers and senior representatives from the ICT industry with an opportunity to exchange views on the role of global standards in spreading access to green ICT, as well the development of new standards that reflect the interdependence of industry sectors.

Green Standards Week (GSW) will take place from 17 to 21 September in Paris France. GSW is a cluster of workshops, hosted by Microsoft and supported by Huawei, Orange, Fujitsu and Telefonica, which will focus on raising awareness of the importance of using ICT standards to build a green economy and combat climate change. Remote participation will be made possible with video, streamed audio and the ability to send questions via a moderator (instructions will be provided to those who opt for remote participation on the online registration form).

GSW will bring together leading specialists in the field, from top policy-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and others. It is open to participation by the press, and journalists wishing to attend should email Toby Johnson at toby.johnson@itu.int.

14 August 2012 - Green Standards Week drives tech sustainability strategies

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:23:09 +0000

Paris meeting to accelerate work on green ICT policies and standards
Geneva, 01 August 2012 ITUs second annual Green Standards Week (GSW), to be held in Paris from 17-21 September, will stimulate the creation of international green ICT standards with a view to further expanding the capabilities of information and communication technologies to boost environmental efficiency across all industry sectors.

Organized by ITU and TechAmerica Europe and hosted by Microsoft, it will gather policy makers, regulators, private sector entities, research institutes and standards development organizations (SDOs) to discuss the standardization of ICT from an environmental perspective. A High-Level Segment featuring key industry and government figures will discuss the role of global standards in spreading access to green ICT, as well the development of new standards that reflect the interdependence of industry sectors.

Read full press release

07 August 2012 - African regional groups identify their priorities for ITU-T

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:48:37 +0000

Recent ITU meetings addressed the challenges facing African countries in the measurement of Quality of Service (QoS)/Quality of Experience (QoE) parameters for voice, 3G and Internet mobile networks nearing completion of guidelines for a QoS regulatory framework for ICT services. The meetings also addressed environmental concerns associated with ICT development, such as the growing e-waste challenge, the measurement of human exposure to Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields (RF EMF), and the need to develop a sustainable means of extending telecoms-network coverage to the rural areas of developing countries.

The four ITU events were held in Cotonou, Benin, 16-20 July, hosted by Benins Autorité Transitoire de Régulation des Postes et Télécommunications (ATRPT):

Workshop on practical measurement of QoS/QoE parameters for regulatory compliance; and Meeting of Africa Regional Group within ITU-T Study Group 12 (Performance, QoS and QoE)

The workshop was attended by over 80 participants from 21 African countries, gathering representatives of ministries, regulators, operators and vendors to discuss QoS/QoE aspects of Africas expanding mobile networks.

The Africa regional group within ITU-T Study Group 12 (SG 12) advanced its draft guidelines for a QoS regulatory framework for ICT services, which are intended to supplement existing ITU-T recommendations on QoS. Nearing this tasks completion, the group indicated that it will now direct its attention to QoE web browsing under Question 13/12, and the Roadmap for Interconnection of Packet-based Networks under Question 12/12.

Workshop on Tackling Climate Change and SAR Measurement; and Meeting of Africa Regional Group within ITU-T Study Group 5 (Environment and climate change)

The workshop was attended by over 70 participants from 21 African countries, discussing the application of ITU-Ts green ICT standards and the measurement of the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of RF EMF produced by mobile-telephony base stations and devices.

The Africa regional group within ITU-T Study Group 5 (SG 5) highlighted energy efficiency, e-waste reduction and issues related to climate change as its priorities for 2013. The meeting also reviewed its advanced-stage work on a number of guidelines under preparation:

Information guide on human exposure to RF EMF
Methodology for the measurement of GSM Base Station compliance with RF EMF exposure limits
Technical requirements and management methodology of a fund to facilitate a sustainable e-waste management system in developing countries
A sustainable solution to extend the coverage of telecommunications networks to rural areas in developing countries

26 July 2012 - New ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC reports investigate the climate-monitoring and disaster-warning potential of submarine communications cables

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 11:10:16 +0000

The ITU, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and UNESCOs Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC ) have published three new reports analyzing the potential use of submarine communications cables to monitor the environment and provide disaster warnings. The reports provide an examination of the projects engineering and legal considerations, and offer a strategy and roadmap to move the agenda forward.

The reports are freely available on ITUs website...

Equipping repeaters instruments amplifying optical signals, placed an average of 100 km apart on a submarine communications cable with climate-monitoring sensors could make the telecommunications network part of a real-time global ocean-observation network.

An Engineering Feasibility Study (Peter Phibbs and Stephen Lentz, Mallin Consultants Ltd.) investigates the technical feasibility of the project, outlining the requirements of a green repeater equipped with scientific sensors to provide decades-long time series of the rate and degree of climatic change. Concluding that it is possible to equip repeaters with a modest number of low-power scientific instruments, the report finds that the projects principal engineering challenge remains the construction of green repeaters with a reliability and longevity equal to that of robust communications cables.

Opportunities and Legal Challenges (Kent Bressie, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP.) analyzes the projects legal considerations; noting that commercial telecommunications and scientific applications of submarine fibre-optic cables have traditionally operated independently of one another, and that the convergence of these applications presents a scenario not easily fitting within the jurisdictional categories established by international law.

Finally, a Strategy and Roadmap (Rhett Butler, University of Hawaii) takes into account the scientific, business, engineering and legal considerations of this ambitious project; offering a United Nations strategy and roadmap to advance the agenda led by ITU, WMO and UNESCO-IOC.

The reports conclusions will provide fuel to discussions at an upcoming workshop on the subject, 20-21 September, hosted by ITU, WMO and UNESCO-IOC. The workshop is part of the second ITU Green Standards Week in Paris, 17-21 September, an event gathering players from all industry sectors to determine how green ICT standards can effect economy-wide improvements in environmental sustainability.

More information on the 2^nd ITU Green Standards Week

03 July 2012 - Social Electricity takes first prize in ITUs 2nd Green ICT Application Challenge

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:40:55 +0000

Andreas Kamilaris, a PhD student at the University of Cyprus, has been awarded first prize in the second ITU Green ICT Application Challenge for his Social Electricity proposal. The Facebook application lends a competitive edge to smart-meter readings by enabling users to compare their energy consumption with that of friends and family, or with neighborhood, state and national averages.

Malcolm Johnson, Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), ITU, and Silvia Guzmán Araña, Telefónicas Global Sustainablity and Reputation Director, will present Andreas first prize of USD 3,000 at an award ceremony to be held on the 19th of September in Paris, at the ITU Green Standards Week. Telefónica co-organized the competition together with ITU.

Kamilaris motivation for the application was to create a means of better quantifying the energy-consumption data produced by smart meters. The Challenges panel of judges representing ITU, Telefónica, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the European Commission deemed his socially-powered concept the best to satisfy the Challenges theme ofSustainable Energy for All. The development of the app is almost complete and, at Green Standards Week, Kamilaris will showcase its use and operation as well as any preliminary results garnered from the Social Electricity pilot soon to be launched across Cyprus. Electricity-related measurements will beprovided by the Electricity Authority of Cyprus, which supports this project.

Honourable Mentions were awarded to another four promising apps, all similarly targeting ICT-enabled energy management.

New Delhis Gauri Dutt Sharma proposed an application termed a Standby Monitor for Home Appliances, a living-room monitor signaling which appliances are idle and which are consuming electricity by way of sensors attached to these appliances power cables.

Gopal Tiwari, from Indias Sagar Institute of Technology and Management, produced Electrosoft which details an electricity-supply scheduling system of use to both households and businesses. The app regulates the electricity supply to certain energy-intensive processes, scheduling energy-consuming operations in such a way that it minimizes the energy wasted as result of human error.

Andy Bäcker from Spain, CEO and founder of Sustainable Reference, proposed an app entitled SURE! which offers a point-scoring system whereby commercial activities, at all levels of the value chain, are awarded pointsbased on the degree of their operations environmental sustainability.

Dr. Tohru Asami of the University of Tokyo proposed An Energy Proportional Power Supply Control for Rural ICT Systems which presents a methodology to power rural ICT systems using the surplus power produced by photovoltaic (solar) power generation units designed to serve mobile-phone base stations.

More information on the 2nd ITU Green ICT Application Challenge is available here.

12 June 2012 - ITU event closes with green call to international community

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 07:10:03 +0000

Eco-design to reduce e-waste and enabling policies highlighted

Geneva, 5 June 2012 Participants at the 7th ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change have issued a Declaration that encourages ICT manufacturers to make their products more easily upgradable without need for replacing the entire device. The call to promote a life cycle approach in the design of ICTs (eco-design) also means better taking into account how components in a device can be recycled. Reducing e-waste and providing incentives and encouragement for e-waste take back schemes were just some of the issues included in the Declaration issued at the end of the event on Friday, 31 May.

The Declaration adopted by the approximately 150 participants at the event also called for enabling policies to encourage investment in smart technologies and ICT based clean technologies (cleantech) as a way of promoting green growth and sustainable development. In addition the support of ITU methodologies to measure the impact of ICT and a recommendation to ramp up research and development on the use of ICTs for monitoring, mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change are mentioned.

Full press release

10 May 2012 - E-environment at WSIS Forum 2012 - Advancing The Sustainable Development Agenda Through ICTs

Thu, 10 May 2012 09:02:50 +0000

Highlight Of Activities On Environment Protection During WSIS Forum 2012

WSIS Forum 2012 will be held in Geneva, Switzerland at the ILO Conference Center on 14-18 May 2012. The forum will provide a structured opportunity to network, learn and participate in multi-stakeholder discussions and consultations, addressing the issues raised by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Included in this one-week event will be four sessions focusing on the role of ICTs as a basic infrastructure that can assist in the transition towards a low-carbon information society. These sessions will explore the opportunities provided by technologies to move forward the sustainable development agenda.

Highlight of the main sessions

Tuesday, 15 May
High level debate - Advancing the Green ICT Agenda (14h-16h, Room IX) is a high level dialogue that will look at the role of ICTs as an enabler for sustainable development and the associated environmental challenges and opportunities related with the global uptake of ICTs. Aspects to be discussed in the session will include the use of ICTs to monitor, mitigate and adapt to climate change and improve resource efficiency, and the impacts of e-waste. Participants of this high level debate will include high level officials from government, business sector and international organization, who will share their vision and experience on the role of partnerships, policies, regulations and standards for advancing sustainable development through Green ICTs.

Wednesday, 16 May
Workshop 1 - E-waste: challenges, solutions and benefits (9h-10h45, Room IX). The consumption of electrical and electronic equipment is increasing rapidly throughout the globe with the fast uptake of ICTs, leading to corresponding increases in volume of electronic waste (e-waste). In developing countries high volumes of e-waste, in combination with absent or poor environmentally sound management systems, have manifold impacts on the environment, local communities and the economic systems. This session will provide an overview of the best practices on policies, regulations and standards for improving e-waste management. Panelists will discussion how e-waste poses environmental and health challenges, but also provides economic opportunities.

Workshop 2 - Climate Change Monitoring and Disaster Risk Reduction (11h-12h45, Room IX). This session which will look at the critical role that ICTs play in climate change monitoring and disaster preparation, response and recovery. The collection and use of accurate climate change data allows for forecasting, mitigating and adapting to climate change and extreme weather events. Early warning systems, monitoring infrastructure and remote sensing can save lives by improving and making more efficient responses to disasters and quickly disseminating information. Panelists will provide an overview of best practices and share case studies on projects using ICTs as a tool to monitor, prepare for and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Action line facilitation meeting - Revisiting E-Environment @ WSIS Roundtable Discussion (16h15 18h, Room VI). This dynamic roundtable discussion will share lessons learned by all stakeholders from implementing programmes, initiatives and public policies related to the use of ICTs for environmental protection, and look at new elements and considerations that could be recommended in the WSIS+10 review. The outcomes will be shared at other major UN conferences and summits, including Rio+20.

Find attached the main program of the event.

Register now at www.wsis.org/forum, where you will find updated information about the event.

24 April 2012 - New ITU-T standards target improved energy efficiency of ICT equipment

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:59:44 +0000

At its recent meeting at ITU Headquarters in Geneva, 11-19 April, ITU-T Study Group 5 ITUs Study Group on environment and climate change consented two new ITU-T standards (Recommendations) targeting increased energy efficiency of ICT equipment.

The first Recommendation provides a specification of the direct current (DC) interface between power-feeding systems and connected ICT equipment, and the second defines energy efficiency metrics and measurement methods to assess the energy efficiency of telecommunication equipment.

Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 specifies a DC current interface able to operate using a power source of up to 400 Volts, which allows higher energy efficiency and reliability than can be achieved using lower-voltage power feeding solutions. The Recommendation standardizes a power feeding system applicable to all ICT equipment defined in a location using these power sources such as: telecommunication centres; radio base stations; data centres; and customer premises. Additionally, the DC interface will simplify the use of renewable energy sources producing DC output such as photovoltaic generators and fuel cell systems.

Recommendation ITU-T L.1310 defines energy efficiency metrics and measurement methods for telecommunication equipment including: wired as well as wireless broadband access; optical transport technologies; routers; switches; mobile core network equipment; and small networking equipment used in homes and small enterprises. L.1310 defines metrics which evaluate ICT equipments energy efficiency through a comparison between its technical performance and its energy consumption. The Recommendation also details measurement methodologies to verify energy efficiency figures produced in accordance with L.1300.

For more on the work of SG 5, please see the groups webpage here.

16 April 2012 - ITU symposium highlights need to make technology a key part of the climate change solution - Montreal meeting to focus on ICTs and environmental sustainability

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:12:17 +0000

Geneva, 12 April 2012 The seventh ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change aims to advance the green ICT agenda by raising awareness of the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to aid in mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Organized by ITU and the government of Canada, and hosted by Prompt, an R&D partnership developer, the symposium will explore the many ways in which advanced technologies can play a role in improving the environmental sustainability of the ICT sector itself, how ICTs can help countries better manage the effects of climate change, and new strategies to help tackle e-waste.

With ICTs now an intrinsic element of every economic sector, the need to integrate ICT-based solutions into the climate change actions of each industry has become essential. The symposium will explore ways of achieving this integration, and will help plot the course of ITUs future work in the field whether it be using radiocommunications to monitor and analyze shifting climate patterns, developing new technical standards detailing best-practice application of green ICTs. The event will also form part of ITUs activities in the lead up to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), highlighting the key role played by ICTs as enablers in environmentally-sustainable economic development.

Full press release

16 April 2012 - Program announced for 7th ITU symposium on ICTs, the environment and climate change

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:07:23 +0000

The Seventh ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change will take place on 29-31 May 2012 in Montreal, Canada. The event, which is co-organized with the government of Canada, will be hosted by Prompt and will bring together leading specialists in the field, from policy-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and others. The event aims to continue to move the Climate Change agenda forward on using ICTs to monitor climate change, mitigate and adapt to its effects and, in this light, identify future requirements for ITUs related work including standardization of ICT equipment and networks as well as development activities.

Taking place over three days, the Montreal symposium will include sessions on the green ICT opportunity; ITU methodologies for the environmental impact assessment of the ICT Sector; greening ICT infrastructures; greening through ICT; e-waste; radio communications to monitor the climate and how ICTs can help countries to adapt to the effects of climate change emergency telecommunications for public protection. Speakers will include representatives from the Government of Canada, ITU, UNFCCC, Greenpeace, Alcatel Lucent, France Telecom, Telefonica, Intel, and Microsoft among others.

One of the main outputs of the symposium will be to define a set of possible goals, commitments and modalities for the ICT sector in the lead up to the 2012 ITU World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly and United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). The purpose is to strengthen the collaboration between the ICT sector and environmental communities.

Click here to get additional information about the symposium, including information about registration and an updated program of the event.

Find more about ITUs activities on climate change at www.itu.int/climate

04 April 2012 - Broadband can lead the transformation to a green economy. New report from the Broadband Commission

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:46:43 +0000

The Broadband Bridge: Linking ICT with Climate Action for a Low Carbon Economy>>, highlights ten recommendations to leverage the opportunities that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can provide to accelerate global progress towards a low-carbon economy. The report, which is the result of work conducted by the Broadband Commission Working Group on Climate Change, chaired by Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson, is being released on 2 April 2012 in Orhid, Macedonia at the 5th meeting of the Commission.

This report emphasizes the kind of transformative solutions that are enabled by broadband and provides practical examples of how broadband can contribute to reducing greenhouse gasses (GHGs), mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change, and promoting resource efficiency. The report concludes with ten recommendations for policy makers and global leaders to hasten and strengthen the ability of ICT and broadband to accelerate global progress towards the low-carbon economy.

The full report and further information can be found at: http://www.broadbandcommission.org/work/working-groups/climate-change.aspx

About the Broadband Commission

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development is an initiative set up by ITU and UNESCO in response to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moons call to step up UN efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Commission was established in May 2010, five years after the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and ten years after the launch of the MDGs. The Commission aims to boost the importance of broadband on the international policy agenda and believes that expanding broadband access in every country is key to accelerating progress towards these goals by the target date of 2015. It defines practical ways in which countries at all stages of development can achieve this, in cooperation with the private sector.

The Commission comprises a high-powered community, including top CEO and industry leaders, senior policy-makers and government representatives, international agencies, academia and organizations concerned with development. Leaders in their field, they each believe strongly in a future based on broadband and offer rich insights and experience in how to deploy and use broadband networks and services to the benefit of communities and end-users. The Commission embraces a range of different perspectives in a multi-stakeholder approach to promoting the roll-out of broadband, as well as providing a fresh approach to UN and business engagement.

For more information on the Broadband Commission, visit: www.broadbandcommission.org

28 March 2012 - Tutorial on ITU methodologies for assessing the environmental impact of ICTs

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 07:35:40 +0000

ITU will hold an Information and Training Session on ITU Methodologies for Assessing the Environmental Impact of ICT at ITU headquarters, Geneva, 12 April.

The event will provide a tutorial on the content and application of ITU-T's new L.1400 series of Recommendations which detail standardized methodologies to assess the life-cycle environmental impact of ICTs, both in terms of their own emissions and the emissions-savings created through ICT applications in other industry sectors.

ICTs can play a key role in improving the environmental sustainability of all industry sectors, particularly in those most harmful to the environment; such as energy generation, transportation, building construction and waste disposal.

The new standard methodologies will generate figures upon which businesses can model future revenues, costs and efficiency gains provided by green ICTs; and figures enabling governments and regulators to identify the gains in social and economic welfare that green ICTs can achieve.

The workshop, for which remote participation is available, will cover the first three* Recommendations of the L.1400 series:
- Recommendation ITU-T L.1400: Overview and general principles of methodologies for assessing the environmental impact of ICT
- Recommendation ITU-T L.1410: Methodology for the environmental impact of ICT goods, networks and services
- Recommendation ITU-T L.1420: Methodology for energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions impact assessment of ICT in organizations

*final two parts of the L.1400 series, ICT in Cities and ICT in Countries or Groups of Countries, are under development by experts working on Question 18 in ITU-T Study Group 5

16 March 2012 - ITU joins SDOs from China, Japan and Korea to enhance cooperation

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:00:07 +0000

Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ITU and the four standardisation bodies of China, Japan and Korea (CJK) last year, see press release here Malcolm Johnson, Director of the ITUs Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, led a delegation from the ITU Secretariat to the eleventh CJK Meeting (CJK-11) 14-16 March at the Seagaia Convention Centre in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. The Indian standards body GISFI also attended the meeting as an observer as it has requested to join the MoU.

The meeting addressed global ICT standardization questions of common interest to the regions key standards bodies: ARIB, CCSA, TTA and TTC.

In his opening speech Johnson noted that CJK governments together account for 15 per cent of the total financial contributions received by ITU from Member States, and private entities from these nations account for 20 per cent of the contributions ITU-T receives from the private sector. Moreover, CJK makes a significant number contribution to ITU meetings: 38 percent more contributions in 2011 than in 2009.

Full speech can be seen here.

CJK meetings seek to maintain and improve the commitment to mutual understanding and cooperation, and recognise the imperative of coordinated international standards for the sound progression of each of the countries ICT industries. The meeting identified the following topics as candidates for collaboration under the MoU: M2M and Dynamic Spectrum Access; Future IMT; smart grid; cloud computing and security; and the work on environment and climate change.

The Deputy Director of ITUs Radiocommunication Bureau, Fabio Leite, also participated in the meeting stressing the importance of collaboration with ITUs Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R), in particular on M2M access networks where there is a clear need for interoperability between radio-based systems.

13 March 2012 - 100 days to Rio+20: the role of ICTs in The Future We Want

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:38:48 +0000

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in exactly 100 days. This global event will mark the 20 year anniversary of the 1992 Earth Summit, the event that raised sustainability to the top of the global agenda, and which set up several of the most relevant international agreements to combat some of the most pressing environmental challenges, such as climate change, desertification and the loss of biodiversity.

From 20 to 22 June 2012 Rio+20 will be in the spotlight, while more than 100 heads of states work together under the theme The future we want to renew political commitment towards sustainability and poverty eradication, looking for solutions and initiatives that can help to bring closer together the three pillars of sustainable development: social, economic and environmental.

In this context, ITU is engaging country delegations, the private sector and the UN system to highlight one of the major opportunities of our generation to integrate the three pillars of sustainable development: the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

ICTs, such as the Internet, mobile phones and satellite, provide innovative applications that create jobs, improve access to basic services (such as health or education), reduce resource consumption (in particular energy consumption) and empower communities through improved access to information and collaboration. Put it simply ICTs help reinforce, converge and integrate all three pillars of sustainable development, and they also support and facilitate attainment of its fundamental underlying principles of efficiency, effectiveness and equity. As our global community moves towards an information society, ICTs have become cross-cutting enablers of a greener and fairer economy.

Visit www.itu.int/rioplus20 to find out more and get involved in ITU´s activities in the road to Rio+20

06 March 2012 - Community bicycle application wins ITU-Telefonica Green ICT Hackathon

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:40:20 +0000

Asier Arranz from Spain has been awarded $3000 and a Nokia Lumia mobile phone as first prize in the Green ICT Hackathon, an event organized by ITU and Telefónica and run in parallel to last weeks Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Arranz proposed Bicing Gamification application aims to encourage users of Bicing, the community bicycle program in Barcelona, to deposit bicycles at underserved Bicing stations. Currently, bicycle-moving vans are necessary to maintain an optimal distribution of bicycles around the city. The application therefore makes use of a geo-location system to notify Bicing users of the stations in need of more bicycles. To encourage users to deposit their bicycles at these underserved stations, Arranz suggests micropayments be made those who do, possibly in the form of deductions to their annual Bicing subscription fees.

The aim of the Bicing Gamification application, says Arranz, is to reduce costs and CO2 emissions and gamify (turn into a game) this green transport system to encourage its use and make cities more sustainable.

Second prize, $2000 and Nokia Lumia, was awarded to Dirceu Dirs from Brazil for an application targeting drivers of electric vehicles and petroleum-fueled cars alike. The Easy Refuel application was developed on the Arduino electronics platform and points drivers towards the nearest, cheapest fuel stations when their vehicles require refueling or recharging.

Third prize, a Nokia Lumia, went to Aaron Franco from the USA for his Jatrobot application which aims to harness social interaction to encourage a widespread production of biodiesel. The name stems from the Jatropha Curcas tree, the seeds of which can be pressed to yield an oil used to produce biodiesel. The Jatrobot app allows users to signal their approval of an environmentally-friendly product by way of a like button, an action which triggers the planting of Jatropha tree seeds by a web-connected robot.

The aim of the Green ICT Hackathon was to encourage the development of applications promoting Sustainable Energy for All. Of further importance to ITU and Telefónica is the Hackathons contribution to the creation of a global network of green ICT developers, one promoting the use of ICT to improve energy efficiency and technology transfer; two key goals to be addressed at Rio+20.

ITU and Telefónica thank their partners in this initiative; Nokia, SAP and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission and WMO. ITU also wishes to thank Telefónica and, specifically, Telefónicas Office of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and BlueVia Movistar Spain (Telefónica Digital).

In addition to the Hackathon, ITU and Telefonica are organizing the 2nd Green ICT Application Challenge to find the best and most innovative Concept Paper for an ICT application to help promote Sustainable Energy for All. Send us your Concept Paper by 13 April 2012. More information about the Hackathon and Challenge can be found at: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange/greenict/201206/index.html or by contacting us at greenstandard@itu.int.

02 March 2012 - Introducing key outcomes from WRC-12 on climate monitoring, disaster relief and climate change

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:26:37 +0000

The 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12) was brought to an end last week in Geneva with the adoption of a set of resolutions to revise the Radio Regulations, the international treaty governing the use of radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits.

WRC-12 addressed over 30 agenda items related to frequency allocation and frequency sharing for the efficient use of spectrum and orbital resources. The agreements reached at the conference will ensure high quality radiocommunication services for mobile and satellite communications, maritime and aeronautical transport as well as for scientific purposes related to the environment, meteorology and climatology, disaster prediction, mitigation and relief, among other services.

A key aspect addressed during the four-week conference was the importance of reserving frequencies for use in the very early stages of humanitarian assistance for disaster relief. The main achievement in this area was the promotion of new technologies, such as International mobile telecommunication (IMT) and intelligent transport systems (ITS) which both offer solutions for public protection through early warning systems, disaster mitigation and relief operations.

Along the same lines, WRC-12 instructed ITU to continue studying aspects of radiocommunications that are relevant to early warning, disaster mitigation and relief operations and encouraged administrations to consider using identified frequency bands when undertaking their national planning to achieve regionally harmonized frequency bands or ranges for public protection and disaster relief solutions.

With regards to climate change, WRC-12 recognized that the understanding of climate monitoring is a prerequisite to any action designed to anticipate and mitigate the human induced phenomenon. The conference approved the allocation of more bandwidth to meteorological-satellite services, and updated spectrum use for the monitoring of water vapour and oxygen spectral lines needed for measurements of global water and carbon cycles. These outcomes guarantee that climate scientists can continue to rely on effective systems for monitoring the environment and predicting climate change, and to ensure the reliable operation of such systems.

While WRC-12 focused on the solutions to be implemented by the sector, the Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-12) -an event held back-to-back with WRC-12- dealt with the sustainability of the ICT sector. On this regard, the Assembly adopted a new resolution instructing ITU to develop a number of recommendations, reports or handbooks to address and ultimately reduce energy consumption within ICT systems and to further investigate the possibilities offered by radio systems or applications to reduce energy consumption in non-radiocommunication sectors.

These outcomes reinforced ITUs mandate in the area of sustainability, climate change and emergency communications, and secured the availability of spectrum and satellite orbit for the operation of radiosystems intended for monitoring the environment and monitoring and predicting climate change.
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Further information:

ITUs activities on climate change at www.itu.int/climate
ITU-R and Climate Change
Relive WRC-12

02 February 2012 - Call for new apps to address sustainable energy for all

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:38:13 +0000

ITU and Telefónica co-host 2012 app-development contests

Geneva, 1 February 2012 - ITU and Telefónica have announced two challenges to uncover innovative ICT approaches to support the 2012 UN-declared International Year for Sustainable Energy for All.

The Green ICT Hackathon will take place on 28-29 February during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, while the 2nd Green ICT Application Challenge is now open for the submission of Concept Papers until 13 April, 2012.

Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: Sustainable energy for all is crucial to the future of modern civilization. ITU is committed to stimulating the creation of innovative ICT apps founded on new modes of thinking; ideas to effect the change needed to achieve a sustainable future.

Alberto Andreu Pinillos, Chief Reputation and Sustainability Officer at Telefónica: The Green ICT Hackathon is part of the joint activities of Telefónicas Global Energy Efficiency and Climate Change Office, Movistar Spain and Bluevia, Telefónicas global developer platform. These initiatives have a double objective first, to support developers with great ideas, and second, to foster green ICT applications for energy efficiency and sustainable development.

Full press release

19 January 2012 - ICTs and climate change: ITUs highlights in 2011

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:37:08 +0000

Last year was an event filled year with regards to ITUs climate change activities. Here is a rundown of the 6 top stories of 2011. Click on each heading to find out more about each activity:

1.The 6th ITU symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change
ITU organized the Sixth Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change in Accra (Ghana), on 7-8 July. The event was hosted by the Ministry of Communications (MOC) of Ghana and brought together leading specialists in the field, from top policy-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts among others.

2.ITU Green Standards Week
From 5 to 9 September in Rome (Italy) ITU organized its first Green Standards Week. The focus of the event was to raise awareness of the importance of using ICT standards to build a green economy and combat climate change. A High-Level Segment provided Ministers and senior representatives from the ICT industry with an opportunity to exchange views on how ICTs can help in the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the run-up to Durban (COP-17) and in preparation for Rio +20 summit.

3.Study Group 5, Universal Charger made greener/leaner
ITUs one-size fits all universal charging solution was further improved to maximize the benefits for end users by extending its use to a wider variety of devices and making it even more energy efficient. The standard now also allows the charger cable to be used for data transfer, avoiding an unnecessary duplicate cables and thus further reducing costs and e-waste.

4.ITU Green Application Challenge
Throughout 2011 organized the Green ICT Application Challenge, a global competition for developers, aimed at finding the best and most innovative idea for a climate change focused application (app). The winner of the competition, Ms. Lis Lugo Colls from Spain, received a USD 10,000 prize for her app concept Smart Recycling. This application helps mobile phone users locate recycling and garbage bins in their area, and aims to contribute to the reduction of pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by waste.

Click here to read our series of interviews with the winner and shortlisted developers

5.ITU participation at COP-17, Outcomes of conference
ITU participated in the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-17) held in Durban (South Africa) in December. The ITU delegation actively promoted the potential of ICTs as a solution to move the negotiations forward and address the challenges of climate change. Key activities held by ITU included the co-organization of the ICT Day at COP17 (held in collaboration with the members of the Coalition on ICT and Climate Change), the organization of an exhibit during the conference and the launch of a special edition of ITU News. Through these activities ITU has continued to contribute to the effort undertaken by the global community to address climate change.

6.WSIS forum 2011, E-environment day. Go smart, move green
At WSIS Forum 2011, held in in Geneva, in May 2011, ITU, together with the Basel Convention, UNEP and WMO organized an E-environment day. The event comprised workshops, interactive discussions, publication releases and networking sessions where multiple environmental issues were debated. The discussions focused on topics such as climate monitoring; adaptation to climate change; making better use of natural resources; and recycling and disposing of end-of-life ICT equipment in an environmentally sound manner.

Find out about these and other stories in our new site Highlights from 2011. To stay connected to ITU's activities on ICTs and climate change you can choose one of the following options:

Check out our site www.itu.int/climate to get involved in upcoming activities>
Get suscribed to our RSS feed on ICTs and climate change to stay updated about upcoming ITU activites
Email us at climate@itu.int to request further information.

ITU is moving the climate change agenda forward.

16 December 2011 - ITU joins the UN System to provide its perspectives on a Green Economy

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:15:05 +0000

Against a backdrop of the multiple crises of the past four years -- financial, economic, food and energy -- the United Nations launched this week a report that offers UN agencies and its member states guidance for coordinating the transition to a Green Economy at the international and country levels.

In the first-ever inter-agency report on the Green Economy, the Environment Management Group (EMG), representing the work of UN agencies, the Bretton Woods Institutions and other intergovernmental bodies outlines steps and policies for pursuing a green economic transformation that generates new sources of sustainable and equitable economic growth that will assist in a global economic recovery.

Such action will require investing in natural capital, clean-technologies, such as information and communication technologies (ICTs), as well as in in human and social capital, including education, health care, cultural development and social protection.

The report, Working towards a Balanced and Inclusive Green Economy, reflects a growing recognition of the shortcomings of business-as-usual practiced by both the public and private sector institutions over the last two decades and assesses how the UN system can coherently support countries in transitioning to a Green Economy. The report highlights the need for more integrated approaches between different international agencies and government departments, as well as more targeted investments across the environmental, economic and social domains.

Urging both agencies and governments to use the forthcoming 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (or Rio+20 Summit) to turn their commitments into reality, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said:

United Nations entities are keenly aware of the resource challenges that countries face in meeting the needs of a growing and urbanizing world population. The human and economic toll of natural disasters and the volatility of commodity prices reflect worrying trends in global climate change, the growing scarcity of some natural resources and the decline of many ecosystems.

This report highlights how these challenges can and must be addressed as part of integrated development models that focus on poverty and human well-being.

The report promotes a UN system-wide understanding of the Green Economy approach to achieve sustainable development and offers a range of instruments that governments can use to impact investment choices and consumer behavior. These include mobilizing financial resources, full cost pricing, regulatory instruments, sustainable trade and green markets, innovation and technology, and indicators for measuring progress towards transition.

The report calls specifically for public spending to target green infrastructure and research and development that can spur green technologies and innovation, as well as better health care and education. In addition, governments need to align their laws, regulations, green standards, taxes, labeling and reporting requirements to reinforce the incentives for the private sector to direct their finance and investments towards green, responsible business and a Green Economy.

The report notes numerous UN-backed initiatives, including ITUs activities to promote green ICT standards, the use of radio-communications for earth observation, or specific initiatives to develop innovative applications that promote the transition to a green economy, such as the ITU Green ICT Application Challenge. These contributions will be instrumental in the preparation of the Rio+20 conference.

Click here to access the full version of the report free of charge. Find more about ITUs activities on climate change and environment protection at www.itu.int/climate

Background information

Rio Earth Summit: In 1992 the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, popularly known as the Rio Earth Summit, was convened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to address the state of the environment and sustainable development. In June 2012, there will be the follow up meeting or Rio+20 in Brazil, where one of the main themes governments are expected to address is Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication.

The Environment Management Group (EMG) is a UN coordination body consisted of the specialized agencies, programmes and organs of the United Nations including the secretariats of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements. It furthers inter-agency cooperation in support of the implementation of the international environmental and human settlement agenda. www.unemg.org. ITU is an active member of the EMG. >

15 December 2011 - ITU Green App Challenge - Meet the WINNER! - Interview with Ms Lis Lugo Colls

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:14:25 +0000

13 December 2011 - COP17 closes with agreements on second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol and on the next steps for the negotiations

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:28:35 +0000

At the end of an intense two weeks in Durban, South Africa, the UNFCCC has announced that the countries meeting at the 2011 UN Conference on Climate Change (COP17/CMP7) have delivered a breakthrough, on the future of the response from the international community to causes and effects of climate change. The package of decisions adopted by the conference include the following key outcomes:

Definition of a road map for the adoption of a new universal legal agreement on climate change to be adopted as soon as possible, but not later than 2015, and that should enter into force by 2020;
Agreement on a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol to enter into force on January 1, 2013. Parties to this second period, which includes 35 industrialized countries, will turn their economy-wide targets into quantified emission limitation or reduction objectives and submit them for review by May 2012;
Agreement on an advanced framework for the reporting of emission reductions for both developed and developing countries;
Decisions on the full implementation of several of the Cancun agreements, including the operationalization of the Green Climate Fund, the Technology Mechanism and the Adaptation Committee.

Whilst governments have pledged to make progress in these areas, it is acknowledged with urgent concern that the current sum of pledges to cut emissions both from developed and developing countries is not high enough to keep the global average temperature rise below two degrees Celsius.

Alongside the negotiations that took place in the main arena, the ITU delegation at the conference promoted the potential of ICTs as a solution to move the negotiations forward and address the challenges of climate change.

Key activities held by ITU included the co-organization of the ICT Day at COP17 (held in collaboration with the members of the coalition on ICT and climate change), the organization of an exhibit during the conference and the launch of a special edition of ITU News .

Through these activities ITU has continued to contribute to the effort undertaken by the global community to address climate change. The next milestone in the negotiations will be the 2012 UN Climate Change Conference (COP18/CMP18), to take place in Qatar in December 2012.

Find more about ITU´s activities con climate change on www.itu.int/climate.

>

07 December 2011 - Special Issue of ITU News Magazine on ICTs and Climate Change Released at COP17/CMP7

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:26:29 +0000

ITU News magazine has just published its November 2011 issue, dedicated to ICTs, climate change and green ICTs. Published with the theme Tackling climate change: Green technology, greener planet, this special issue of ITU News presents an update on the progress achieved by ITU and the ICT sector in promoting the use of ICTs as an enabler of sustainable development and a solution to climate change.

The articles in this special issue cover a broad range of topics, from initiatives on the use of ICTs to the transition to a low-carbon economy and to the approval of the new ITU standardized methodologies to assess the environmental impacts of ICTs. The special issue features a foreword from Ms Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Secretariat, on the role of ICTs in the UNFCCC process. It also features representatives from the private sector including Kevin Tao of Huawei Europe and Ray Pinto of TechAmerica Europe on the industrys commitment to act on climate change through technology.

The issue also features contributions by ITU staff and Study Group 5 members. Read the special issue online at https://itunews.itu.int/en/.

ITU News is the official communication channel between ITU and its membership. Issued ten times a year, ITU News provides an up-to-date view of the Unions activities and global events, as well as the ICT environment that they help to shape.

01 December 2011 - Joint the ICT DAY at the 2011 UN Climate Change Conference

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:35:43 +0000

1 December 2011 will be the ICT Day at the 2011 UN Climate Change Conference in South Africa (COP-17). Hosted by the UNFCCC, and organized by the Coalition on ICTs and Climate Change (an initiative originated by ITU and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative), the ICT day @ COP17 will feature side events on the role of ICTs as a transformative solution to move the climate change agenda forward.

Activities on the day include a side event on ICTs and adaptation, organized by the UNFCCC, a side event on the role of ICTs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, organized by TechAmerica Europe and a full day of webconferences on climate-related ICT applications, featured at the Digital Media Lounge of the conference.

Participants in these activities will include among others, representatives from the public sector, including the participation of the South African Minister of Communications, representatives from private sector organizations, such as Microsoft, Deutsche Telecom, INTEL or France Telecom, as well as high-level officials of key international organizations, such as the UNFCCC secretariat of ITU.

The ICT Day will be opened at 13:00 (Durban time) by H.E. Dina Pule, Minister of Communications of South Africa and by Mr Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU Standardization Bureau.

If you are on-site in Durban please join us at these events in the Digital Media lounge and the Hex River side event room. Follow also the event remotely by following these instructions:

Go to https://cop17.webex.com
Enter your name and email address
Enter the meeting password: TechAmerica
Click Join Now.
Meeting Number: 841 748 360

Find additional information about the event, including how to join remotely at www.itu.int/climate. Move the climate change agenda forward with us.>

01 December 2011 - ICTs can move the climate change agenda forward

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:08:23 +0000

Technology offers practical means of cutting carbon emissions
Geneva, 25 November 2011 ITU, together with a coalition of industry partners, will be working to convince delegates at the UN COP 17 climate change conference in Durban next week to harness the power of information and communication technology (ICT) to promote mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

Todays advanced technologies can transform social, industrial and business processes to effect the changes needed to achieve sustainability. But while the potential of ICTs to make a real difference is widely recognized by the technology community and government ICT ministries, it is still far from being understood and embraced by environmental lobby groups and policymakers.

Full press release

29 November 2011 - Announcing the launch of a Global Survey on e-Waste

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:54:21 +0000

ITU, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)/ Secretariat of the Basel Convention and the United Nations University (UNU), in collaboration with the Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP) Initiative and the Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE), have launched a joint survey on e-waste.

This survey aims to collect detailed data on e-waste management, policies and standards; constructing a comprehensive overview of the current e-waste landscape and identifying future challenges in this realm. Such a mapping of the e-waste issue will establish a base upon which the exchange of e-waste information and best practices can occur, and will form a valuable tool in communicating the gravity of the problem and promoting collaborative work in the future development of policy and management of e-waste.
The widespread use of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) has raised public awareness of its positive effects such as the reduction of the digital divide, but also of the negative environmental and health effects associated with the inefficient waste management of end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or e-waste).

There have been alarming reports of e-waste mismanagement in many countries, particularly in less developed nations and countries with economies in transition. E-waste is a significant contributor to the ICT industrys impact on the environment, and urgent global action to address this issue is essential if the industry is to fulfill its commitment to a sustainable future.

For further information, please see the surveys webpage: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange/e-waste/index.html

25 November 2011 - ITU Green App Challenge - Meet the developers! (#4) - Interview with Mr Praneel Raja

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:49:10 +0000

15 November 2011 - ITUs submission to the Rio+20 compilation document: ICTs are Major Cross-cutting Drivers of Sustainable Development

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:07:01 +0000

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD 2012 or Rio+20) is taking place in Brazil on 20-22 June 2012 to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), in Johannesburg.

It is envisioned that Rio+20 Conference will result in a focused political document, while the process strives to embrace and bring together the three pillars of sustainable development: social, economic and environmental. The conference will also address implementation, emerging challenges, as well as new opportunities for accelerating the transition towards sustainable development pathways.

ITU has promptly submitted its input for the compilation document to serve as basis for the preparation of a zero draft of the outcome document of the conference. Through its submission, ITU comments on the progress to date, underlines the potential key role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the transition to a greener and fairer development model, and shares its expectations for the outcomes of the Conference and the future sustainable development agenda.

Drawing lessons from the outcomes of the major conferences on sustainable development, ITU notes the need for concrete and measurable targets to be defined at the Rio+20 Summit. In addition, ITU emphasizes the need for greater coordination of actions at all levels, and deeper integration of policies, in particular cross-sectoral national strategies.

With regards to the theme of the Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, ITU highlights the transformational potential and positive impact of ICTs in multiple areas such as measuring and monitoring; regulations and standards; capacity building and technology access; engagement of industry and ICT sector; communication dynamics; and social dimension dynamics.

ICTs are a unique cost-effective, environmentally friendly and inclusive instrument to spur green growth and create jobs, promote social progress and the MDGs, and ensure environmental protection and a sustainable future. Thus, ITU reiterates that ICTs should be recognized as one of the major cross-cutting drivers of sustainable development. ICTs help reinforce, converge and integrate all three pillars of sustainable development, and they also support and facilitate attainment of its fundamental underlying principles of efficiency, effectiveness and equity.

Among concrete outcomes expected from the Conference, ITU supports the development of a Roadmap, a conceptual and action-oriented framework setting specific goals and a set of green economy tools to achieve them. ITU advocates for inclusion in the text of two such Sustainable Development Goals relating to ICTs: (a) ICTs as key vehicles and basic infrastructure driving the transition to green economy and sustainable development patterns, to reflect their new multifold role and potential as described above; (b) Access to ICTs and to broadband, as a goal itself with direct impact on other basic services and sectors.

ITU believes the time is right to make the best use of all the opportunities at our hands to move together the sustainable development agenda forward, with and through ICTs. You may access the full text of ITUs input to the compilation document for the Rio+20 Conference here.

For more information on the work of ITU in relation to the themes of the Conference please click here.

For more information on the Rio+20 Conference, please click here

10 November 2011 - ITU Green App Challenge - Meet the developers! (#3) - Interview with Ms. Maria Dolores Rodriguez De Azero

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:29:28 +0000

The first ITU Green ICT Application Challenge, supported by RIM and Telefonica, sought to uncover innovative concept papers for climate change related ICT applications. ITU announced the Challenges winner and papers deserving special mention at the Green Standards Week held in Rome, 5-9 September 2011.

One of the challenges finalists, Ms. Maria Dolores Rodriguez De Azero from Spain, developed a concept for an application entitled, Effi-e Play Green. This application aims to reduce GHG emissions in the tourist industry by monitoring energy and water consumption in hotels. Through the app, Effi-e Play Green promotes sustainable behavior throughout hotels, offering rewards to sustainable customers through eco-points. We approached Maria Dolores to discuss the inspiration for her concept and her experience with the challenge. Here is what she had to say.

[Question] Tell us a little about yourself and what you do.

I am CEO of PUEBLOCHICO (www.pueblochico.com), a leisure park in La Orotava, a town in Tenerife. This park, which celebrates its 10th anniversary next July, reproduces in a 1:25 scale the most emblematic buildings on the island. In addition, the park offers walks in a garden setting with a great landscape, all below the mount Teide. A ride in PUEBLOCHICO educates our visitors on the Canary Islands history and customs, and also on its current situation from different perspectives.

In addition, I am the chairwoman of the IAMP (International Association of Miniature Parks). Finally, I am also the chairwoman of Turisfera (Tenerife Cluster Association of Tourism Innovation), a workspace composed of tourism businesses, public institutions, associations, and knowledge centers from all parts of the island. The aim of this cluster is to encourage and support innovative projects undertaken on the island. Alongside all this activity, I am a mother of four children, and so I am very busy!

[Q] How did you find about the Challenge, and why did you decide to take part?

Sustainability is one of Turisfera´s strategic lines of action. The Canary Islands will most likely be affected by climate change, so we are truly committed to working on solutions dealing with the causes and effects of environmental change. We are looking at developing the islands tourism industry, while keeping a strong commitment to sustainable development and a respect for the environment.

Our first project to this effect was Effi-e Play Green, and it has become Turisferas flagship sustainability initiative. The Turisfera Management Team has worked incredibly hard in developing this project, to ensure it receives the credit it deserves. In this regard, I know that ITU is an organization actively promoting innovations and initiatives like this one. It was actually a member of the Board of Turisfera, someone deeply involved in sustainability issues, who told me about the ITU contest. We are really lucky to have a highly motivated team, with people that work very well together. As soon as we heard of the competition, we decided to take part. We strongly believe in the potential of Effi-e, and we saw this contest as an ideal platform to promote it.

[Q] Have you developed an app before or was this experience new to you?

Turisfera was launched last year and, as I have mentioned, Effi-e is the first project we have developed. We could not have started out better: not only is this project very exciting, but it has also been very well received by the sector as hotels efforts to improve their environmental management are made very visible to their guests. Indeed, Effi-e has turned out to be a more powerful communication tool than any environmental statement or sustainability report. In the development of Effi-e, Turisfera opted for collaboration with other companies and clusters; clusters such as RICAM (Cluster of Renewable Energy, Environment and Water Resources of the Canary Islands), Dobon Technologies, Proyectran, and Brandia - entities enriching the project with their experience. Although beginnings are always difficult, and even more so for such a young cluster, our experience has been both successful and very rewarding.

[Q] Was the application that you presented something youve been working on for a long time or did you develop the app for this challenge?

Turisfera conceived the Effi-e project a year ago. Since then, we have worked hard to turn the concept into a reality. The prototype is currently being tested at Hotel Tigaiga in Tenerife, a hotel known worldwide for its environmental awareness. The special mention from ITU has been a finishing touch to our work, and we are very proud of this achievement.

[Q] How did the development of the app take place?

The project was reflected in our Strategic Plan. With the support of Tenerifes local government, we obtained a grant to launch the projects pilot phase through the TF Innova program.

Effi-es main value is to demonstrate a hotels commitment to the environment by involving its guests. Guests are personally involved in caring for the environment in a friendly, positive, fun way that consequently improves their experience of the island. This technological tool provides real-time information about guests energy and water consumption, as well as possible actions they can take to reduce their environmental impact. The guest is then actively involved in the process of optimizing the use of natural resources. It is a fun, competitive process and their degrees of environmental awareness are rewarded with bonuses (like discounts in leisure centers, donations to carbon offset programs or to environmental awareness projects, etc.).

Moreover, Effi-es real-time energy and water consumption information is also received by a hotels management. This picture of a hotels load on the environment helps its management not only with environmental concerns, but also with cost-benefit analyses of new processes or procedures.

As I have mentioned, we sought the cooperation of other clusters and entities from the very beginning of the project. Right after Hotel Tigaiga showed its interest in participating, RICAM cluster performed an environmental audit that included monitoring the hotels energy and water consumption. At the same time, Proyectran worked out the development of the technological applications, and Brandia took charge of graphic design and communication strategies for the project.

[Q] What was your biggest challenge when designing the application?

I must say that, besides the usual difficulties in a project´s development, our biggest challenge has been the sheer scale of the initiative. Effi-e is a project with great potential to heighten Tenerifes reputation as a sustainable destination, truly committed to caring for the environment. It has been very hard to adapt the prototype to our limited budget, as our team is continually producing good ideas which make the project even bigger and more valuable.

[Q] What was your motivation behind developing an app to combat climate change/promote sustainability?

The environment and environmental management have become resources of great importance in attracting tourists. It is a highly-weighted factor in the decisions of tourists considering Spanish destinations. However, compared to our direct competitors, we are not in the best position when it comes to environmental sustainability. This challenge is however not without complexity. Policies to combat climate change and new international energy scenarios may have important indirect impacts on the tourism sector. Energy is the basis of multiple tourism processes and products, especially in tourist mobility and HVAC (Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning).

In this sense, the competitiveness and attractiveness of tourist destinations seem increasingly vulnerable to the greenhouse gas mitigation policies and rising energy prices. Therefore, stakeholders must anticipate the impacts on the tourism sector likely to be made by such GHG reduction policies.

In any case, we must share the responsibility. It is crucial that the tourism industry - transportation and accommodation industry, tour operators, travel agencies, and tourist guides - encourages the use of technologies and logistics procedures that minimize the industrys impact on the environment. We thus encourage the use of renewable energy and sustainable mobility projects by providing technical assistance and tax incentives, and also develop communication campaigns to increase the environmental awareness of both local people and tourists.

[Q] Where did your inspiration for this application come from?

We realized that eco-efficiency improvements performed by hotels are usually seen simply as part of business management, and are not adequately communicated to the customer. We wanted to develop Effi-e as a tool that could communicate the real value of these hotels commitment to the environment.

[Q] What other activities are you involved in to help fight climate change and promote environmental sustainability?

My green commitment is reflected primarily in my private life. There are many examples of energy saving efforts, responsible consumption, reusing or recycling in my family environment. For me, an attitude of environmental awareness is of utmost importance to my family. Also, I participate in an investment company on a photovoltaic power plant of 14 MGW. In my opinion, this is one of the most promising future energy sources as it is clean, sustainable, and very successful in a place like Tenerife, where sunshine is guaranteed.

[Q] What do you expect from this application in the future? Are you planning to further develop it?

Yes, indeed. We have identified the possible weaknesses of the Effi-e prototype, and this has allowed us to better define our goal. At the moment, we are launching a second phase of development that includes all the improvements made to the prototype. Effi-e aims to become a brand signifying eco-efficiency and responsible energy use, in many tourism-intensive regions. We hope to promote Effi-e with hotels yielding net zero carbon footprints, by working with a network of companies and their eco-conscious clients, proud to collaborate in the name of environmental preservation.

[Q] What is your advice to developers wishing to create apps to help combat climate change/promote sustainability?

I would suggest they opt for a cooperative work approach in the development of their apps, and that they never lose courage in pursuing their goals. Our future cannot be separated from the battle against climate change. It is essential that all contribute towards a greener society.

[Q] Any last thoughts?

I just want to give my most sincere congratulations to ITU for the organization of this contest. I wish there were more initiatives like this one!

To find out more about Ms. Rodriguez De Azero and her activities in Turisfera, contact her via ITU by sending an email to climate@itu.int. Meet the rest of the winners and relive the ITU Green Application Challenge by accessing http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange/greenict/index.html.

For more information about the ITUs activities on climate change visit www.itu.int/climate.

08 November 2011 - Ninth Meeting of Joint Coordination Activity on ICT & Climate Change (JCA-ICT&CC), 23 November 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:35:00 +0000

Ninth Meeting of Joint Coordination Activity on ICT & Climate Change (JCA-ICT&CC), 23 November 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

On-line Registration

07 November 2011 - ITU Green App Challenge - Meet the developers! (#2) - Interview with Mr. Stephan Reiter and Ms. Simone Ferlin

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:42:24 +0000

The first ITU Green ICT Application Challenge, supported by Blackberry and Telefonica, sought to uncover innovative concept papers for climate change related ICT applications. ITU announced the Challenges winner and papers deserving special mention at the Green Standards Week held in Rome, 5-9 September 2011.

One of the challenges finalist entries comes from Stephan Reiter and Simone Ferlin, both from Germany, who developed a concept for an application entitled Make Me Green Delivering Context-Specific Suggestions for a Green Lifestyle. The goal of the application is to raise awareness of the impacts made by different lifestyles on the environment and climate change. Through the implementation of a tracking system, the application provides questions and suggestions about the lifestyle of the user, generating a greenness rating that can be used to establish a comparison with other users.

We approached Stephan and Simone to discuss the inspiration for their concept and their experiences with the challenge. Here is what they had to say.

[Question] Tell us a little about yourselves and what you do.

Simone: I am originally from Brazil, but came to Germany in 2004 to study information technology in Erlangen. I was always very enthusiastic about communications and took part in a few competitions during university. Before coming to Germany, I had thought my German was good enough. I realized quite quickly however that my greatest challenges were not with engineering, but with language, as dealing with the different regional dialects proved problematic.

Stephan, with whom I share an office at LMU, where we are both working on our Ph.D., talks even more peculiarly as hes from Austria. Besides jokes about vocabulary and grammar, we enjoy working and spending time together. Stephan: Simone has already spilled the beans: I am from Austria. I studied computer science in Linz, then came to Munich in 2009 to work as a graphic software engineer. I however quickly decided to go back to university, to have more time for my personal interests, and to experience the academic environment from a researchers perspective. I also wanted to change my focus from graphics to communication networks. Simone and I are working on our Ph.D. at LMU, and also find time to participate in challenges like this one. Simone is a veteran when it comes to competitions, and she was kind enough to let me join her in this one.

[Q] How did you find out about the ITU Green ICT Application Challenge?

Simone, Stephan: We often receive information through our research group about the activities of other research communities. We both received an invitation to participate in the ITU Green ICT Application Challenge, and immediately saw that the topic was well suited to an idea we had discussed before.

[Q] Why did you decide to take part in the challenge?

Stephan: We had discussed this idea of an environmental awareness application before we actually knew about this challenge. So, when Simone saw the challenge announced and told me about it, we just knew that we had to present our idea. Not only because it gave us an opportunity to present our idea and make a lasting contribution to the environment, but also because competitions are always fun and challenges like these appeal to our not-so-serious-researcher hearts.

Simone: At our university, I have volunteered in many projects related to the environment and environmental awareness. Through these projects, it became clear to me that people do not have enough information on environmental awareness, and typically dont know where to find such information. Stephan and I figured out an idea to solve this problem. And yes, I have always been motivated to participate in competitions: It is always very interesting, and gives one the freedom to explore new ideas.

[Q] Have you developed an app before, or was this experience new to you?

Simone: Not professionally, but we had something similar to this during my time at university.

Stephan: I developed a few applications for smartphones during my time at university, but never professionally and usually just for coursework.

[Q] Was the application that you presented something youve been working on for a long time or did you develop the app for this challenge?

Simone: I had an idea that we had taken through many drafts in our discussions. It was however only when we heard about the ITU Application Challenge that we decided to present it.

[Q] How did the development of the concept for the app take place? What was your biggest challenge when designing the application?

Simone: We did it partly during our working hours. Then, as soon as we had committed to submitting the paper, we went to the basement and used the white board to synchronize our ideas. With regards to the design, we wanted to keep it simple, stupid! (KISS approach). We knew it was something to be implemented in the near future, and we thus had to make a few compromises to ensure we met the deadline. We also found it challenging to accommodate environmental literature and state of the art technology in the type of application required by the Challenge.

Stephan: From my point of view, the biggest challenge was to narrow our many ideas down to an acceptable and, very importantly, realistic set of features for such an application. The first draft of our application was massive and had a host of cool ideas we planned to include. We then realized how difficult this would have been to implement, and so paused to determine exactly which of these ideas we needed to focus on. The result was an app that could be easily implemented, while still remaining a high-quality, useful tool in combating climate change.

[Q] What was your motivation behind developing an app to combat climate change/promote sustainability?

Simone: I had a few ideas about how IT could relate to the environment and, since mobile technologies are becoming increasingly widespread, a mobile application seemed a good testing ground for these ideas.

Stephan: Our approach was also a very pragmatic one: On our way home from work each day, we see people playing with their mobile phones. It's no secret that people take their mobiles wherever they go, and that they use them for entertainment as much they do for communication. The idea that mobiles could educate their users on environmental issues was very appealing to us.

[Q] Where did your inspiration for this application come from?

Simone: I was confronted with these issues while volunteering on environmental projects, where we found that information on environmental awareness rarely reached the people needing it most. We were having to repeat much of our work, as people did not know how and where to find information on environmentally-friendly behavior.

[Q] What other activities are you involved in to help fight climate change and promote environmental sustainability?

Simone: At the moment, I am very busy with university-related work, and have almost no time to volunteer. I simply try to consciously accommodate the environment in my everyday life, taking the environmentally-friendly option whenever it is available (e.g. riding a bicycle to work, or properly recycling garbage).

Stephan: I was raised as a good citizen who separates garbage for recycling purposes, uses public transportation and consciously considers the environment when making choices in the supermarket. However, unlike Simone, who has been active in the Bund Naturschutz in Germany, I have never been a member of an environmental organization.

[Q] What do you expect from this application in the future? Are you planning to develop it further?

Simone: From our point of view, it is a very promising concept. We are however very involved in work related to our PhDs, and I think our concept might have to wait in the drawer for some time!

Stephan: The idea is now visible and, as we do not have the time, we sincerely hope someone else will develop it further. It would be very cool to discover a commercially successful application based on our idea. I would definitely use it, and Simone and I would probably have several ideas to improve it.

[Q] What is your advice to developers wishing to create apps to help combat climate change/promote sustainability?

Simone: Just do it! But before you set out, ensure that your concept is realistic, and that you know exactly what your targets are.

Stephan: Apps can be anything from small programs to full-blown services. Even if you don't have a lot of time to invest, you can still create popular apps that provide real value to the people who use them.

[Q] Any last thoughts?

Simone and Stephan: Where is the cake ?!

To find out more about Ms. Ferlin and Mr. Reiter and their activities, contact them via ITU by sending an email to climate@itu.int. Meet the rest of the winners and relive the ITU Green Application Challenge by accessing http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange/greenict/index.html.

For more information about the ITUs activities on climate change visit www.itu.int/climate.

31 October 2011 - ITU Green App Challenge - Meet the developers! - Interview with Ms. Euphraith Muthoni Masinde

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:51:15 +0000

The first ITU Green ICT Application Challenge sought to uncover innovative concept papers for climate change related ICT applications. ITU announced the Challenges winner and papers deserving special mention at the Green Standards Week held in Rome, 5-9 September 2011. The event was supported by BlackBerrry and Telefonica.

One of the challenges finalists, Ms. Euphraith Muthoni Masinde from Kenya, developed a concept for an application entitled, A Community-Based System for Biodiversity Degradation. This application aims to tackle climate change through community engagement and knowledge sharing. The app proposes a system harnessing traditional and indigenous knowledge on biodiversity and conservation. This information will be brought to light through community-based focus groups, and then disseminated to users through a database feeding data directly to mobile phones. Users would then build on this knowledge to create their own conservation practices.

We approached Euphraith to discuss the inspiration for her concept and her experience with the challenge. Here is what she had to say.

[Question] Tell us a little about yourself and what you do.

I am a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. I am a member of the HPI Research School in ICT for development (ICT4D), as well as a member of the Intelligent Systems and Advanced Telecommunication Laboratory. I am currently on study-leave from the School of Computing and Informatics at the University of Nairobi, where I am a lecturer.

I hold an MSc. in Computer Science from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, and a BSc. in Computer Science from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. My research objective is to come up with a drought and climate change monitoring/warning solution based on wireless sensor networks and mobile phones. This research also seeks to determine how these two technologies can complement indigenous African knowledge on droughts.

[Q] How did you find about the Challenge, and why did you decide to take part?

I am registered with the ITUs Academic database,and it was through this network that I became aware of the Challenge and received an invitation to take part.. I decided to take part in the competition because my current area of research revolves around a number of topics on ITUs list of activities. For instance, I am piggybacking the design of my wireless sensor networks on the ITUs schematic layers of a ubiquitous sensor network proposal. In short, I am just fascinated by the activities of ITU, and this made me quickly submit my application to the Challenge.

[Q] Have you developed an app before or was this experience new to you?

Yes, I have developed a number of applications over the last 15 years. My first job assignment at the University of Nairobi was as a computer software analyst/developer. To give an example of my work in this role, I designed and developed the students management information system that is currently in use at the university. As a lecturer, I specialize in teaching courses with a software development emphasis, and I develop software as a hobby.

[Q] Was the application that you presented something youve been working on for a long time, or did you develop the app for this challenge? How did the development of the app take place?

My application is something I have been working on for the last 18 months, and I intend to complete it by the end of 2012. The development of my app is still under way.I have completed the template for collecting the indigenous knowledge on biodiversity degradation, and this takes the form of an Android-based mobile application. The website to disseminate this information is also complete, and it is a PHP-Apache-MySQL application.

[Q] What is the biggest challenge you are expecting upon completion of the application?

My biggest challenge lies in collecting this elusive indigenous knowledge on biodiversity degradation. It is an enormous volume of information and the task of collecting it is one requiring more resources than I currently have at my disposal.

[Q] What was your motivation behind developing an app to combat climate change/promote sustainability?

I viewed the competion as an avenue through which to publish what I consider a very innovative idea of compacting climate change information. I also entered hoping to win the prize and use the prize-money to fund the completion of my application.

[Q] Where did your inspiration for this application come from?

It came from my personal encounters with the devastating effects of climate change on biodiversity. I was born and brought up in a semi-arid area of the Eastern region of Kenya. In this remote village called Rugogwe, the formerly semi-arid area is now on the verge of becoming arid.

I grew up and lived in this village for over 20 years, and I have witnessed phenomenal degradation of its biodiversity. Crops such as sweet potatoes and bananas, which thrived in the late 1970s and early 80s, have no chance of flourishing in the now hostile climate. Seasonal rivers and streams that retained water throughout the year now struggle to retain water for a day. The size of maize crops and finger millet bunches produced by the areas farms have shrunk drastically, and many musical birds that sang joyful songs during rainy seasons are now extinct. The bulls, cows, goats, sheep and chicken are no longer as big as we knew them in years past, rains do not fall when we expect them to and, when they do, they cause floods and carry away the little soil and sand left from sand harvesting!

Biodiversity here has been turned upside-down. I am determined to use my doctoral level education to contribute a solution for this degradation.

[Q] What other activities are you involved in to help fight climate change and promote environmental sustainability?

I have developed a novel solution for down-scaling the collection and dissemination of weather information to a local level. My solution makes use of the prevalence of mobile phones and versatile wireless sensor networks.

[Q] What do you expect from this application in the future? Are you planning to further develop it? What is your advice to developers wishing to create apps to help combat climate change/promote sustainability?

I am determined to see the full realization of my application. I will first pilot it in three selected areas in Kenya, and then hopefully scale it up to the rest of Kenya and the Horn of Africa in general. To my fellow developers, I would encourage people to create community-driven applications. It is difficult to go wrong with such initiatives, because one ends up with a solution for people-by-the-people.

[Q] Any last thoughts?

I am completely thrilled that the prominent judges deemed my application worthy of a special mention. This has really boosted my morale and encouraged me to move even faster in implementing my application. Thank you very much to the ITU team that came up with this noble idea.

To find out more about Ms. Muthoni and her activities, visit her website at http://www.muthonimasinde.net/, or contact her via ITU by sending an email to climate@itu.int. Meet the rest of the winners and relive the ITU Green Application Challenge by accessing http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange/greenict/index.html.

For more information about the ITUs activities on climate change visit www.itu.int/climate

29 September 2011 - International agreement on green ICT methodology - ITU addresses conflict minerals, environmentally-friendly batteries

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:21:34 +0000

ITU has underlined its key role in green ICT with a raft of announcements today by Study Group 5 of its Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T).

A meeting of the group in Seoul, Korea has seen agreement on a globally-recognized set of methodologies to assess the environmental impact of information and communications technology (ICT). It also saw agreement to produce a report on due diligence guidelines for conflict minerals supply, and to study environmental protection and recycling solutions for batteries for mobile phones and other ICT devices.

Estimates of how much ICTs can reduce global emissions and estimates of the emissions generated by the ICT sector itself still vary widely, due to the application of different measurement methodologies. After the problem was raised by delegates to ITUs ICTs and Climate Change symposium in 2008, ITU took on the challenge and has pioneered adoption of a new globally-agreed set of standards.

To ensure consistency between different approaches, the new methodology has been developed in cooperation with other standardization organizations such as ISO, IEC, ETSI and ATIS. The new methodology is also aligned with the Digital Agenda of the European Commission.

Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General, ITU: This methodology has been developed by ITU's industry members. This will be important in ensuring it gains wide acceptance by the world's ICT industry. An internationally agreed methodology means estimates of the impact of ICTs on greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption will now have much greater credibility. It will also show just how significant a contribution ICTs can make by reducing global emissions in other sectors.

Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission: I'm pleased that the industry is taking the task of measuring its own footprint so seriously. And I'm pleased that the ITU, as a UN agency, is doing such good work facilitating negotiations, reaching out globally to industry sub-sectors and to other standardization initiatives.

New guidelines on conflict minerals

New ITU work on conflict minerals will also begin in response to a request from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). ITU will make a survey of existing due diligence requirements and guidelines concerning sources of conflict minerals (in particular, those that are smelted into tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold), as well as their use in conformity with recognized international treaties and national legislation, where this exists.

Rare earth minerals are used in consumer electronics products such as mobile phones, DVD players, video games and computers. The report will provide guidance to ICT entities seeking to exercise due diligence on, and formalize the origin and chain of custody of, conflict minerals used in their products and on their suppliers to ensure that conflict minerals used in their products do not directly or indirectly finance armed conflict or result in labour or human rights violations. Agreement to address this issue demonstrates the ICT industrys commitment to sustainability at all levels of the value chain.

Following on from the success of ITUs Universal Charging Solution for mobile devices (Recommendation ITU-T L.1000), the meeting also agreed to study the benefits and disadvantages of the standardization of batteries for mobile terminals and other ICT devices, looking at energy efficiency over the battery life cycle, eco-design information, battery lifetime and exchangeability, safety and environmental protection, recycling and reuse. This could lead to a reduction of harmful materials used in batteries and an increased lifespan of ICT products. Battery manufacturers, device manufacturers, operators and users will all benefit, say experts.

Ahmed Zeddam, Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 5: This has been the most productive and significant meeting in the long history of Study Group 5. Twelve new important standards have been agreed, including many critical to methodologies to assess the environmental impact of ICT and the protection of home networks and next generation network (NGN) equipment from electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and environmental effects. The meeting also saw revisions to a key set of standards on resistibility to overvoltages or overcurrents of telecoms equipment. ITU is the only organization producing these important global standards.

For more information, please contact:

Toby Johnson
Senior Communications Officer
E-mail: toby.johnson@itu.int
Tel: +41 22 730 5877;
mobile: +41 79 249 4868

Sarah Parkes

Chief, Media Relations and Public Information,
E-mail: sarah.parkes@itu.int
Tel: +41 22 730 6135;
mobile: +41 79 599 1439

23 September 2011 - Speakers announced for the 4th meeting of the DCICC, to be held in Nairobi

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:14:53 +0000

The 4th meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change (DCICC) will be held on the 30 of September in Nairobi, Kenya during the 6th annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The meeting will bring together key specialists in the field, from government officials to private sector specialists.

The 4th meeting of DCICC will have an open format to allow participants to share their latest activities on the area of Internet and climate change. The meeting will be opened by H.E. Hasanul Haq Inu, MP and chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Ministry of Post and Telecommunication of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, and moderated by Mr Ali Drissa Badiel, Senior Adviser of the ITU Regional Office for Africa. For the first time, the meeting of the coalition will be followed by a technical workshop focused on Green ICTs and Innovation.

Speakers to take part in the event will include representatives from ITU, the OECD, Microsoft, the International Development Research Centre and UNEP, among others. The workshop will be moderated by Ms Nevine Tewfik, Deputy Director of International Relations, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt.

For more information, including the full program of the meeting refer to http://www.itu.int/themes/climate/dc/index.html

More information about ITU's activities in climate change at www.itu.int/climate

12 September 2011 - ICT industry backs greenhouse gas emissions methodology - Green standards take centre stage at Rome event

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:27:36 +0000

The first ITU Green Standards Week closed Friday with a call on international bodies, NGOs, standards bodies, governments, regulators, industry and academia to collaborate more closely on the application and development of information and communication technologies (ICT) standards to help combat climate change. Particular emphasis was placed on a globalized methodology to assess the environmental impact of ICTs, reducing e-waste, and the use of submarine cables for climate monitoring and disaster warning.

ITU has been working with industry and government members aiming to achieve agreement on an internationally recognized set of methodologies to be approved by the end of the year. Included is a methodology which ICT companies can use to measure their own carbon footprint, as well as a way to estimate the considerable savings in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy that can be achieved in other sectors through the use of ICTs.

Full press release

01 September 2011 - Winner announced for the first ITU Green ICT Application Challenge: Top prize goes to Smart Recycling App

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:53:18 +0000

The application Smart Recycling has been awarded the winner of the first ITU Green ICT Application Challenge. The global competition was organized by ITU and supported by Telefónica and Research In Motion to identify innovative applications that can help improve energy efficiency and combat climate change. Designed by Lis Lugo Colls, from Spain, the application aims to help mobile users locate recycling and garbage bins within their area, and provide advice generally on recycling. The application will benefit citizens, government recycling programs and private recycling companies by creating a more sustainable and resource-efficient future through community engagement and eco-design.

Four special mentions were made by the jury to the applications Make Me Green Delivering Context-Specific Suggestions for a Green Lifestyle, by Stephen Reiter and Simone Ferlin (Germany), Effi-e Play Green, presented by Maria Dolores Rodriguez De Azero (Spain), Mobile App to Use a Vehicle to its Fullest Capacity, by Praneel Raja (India) and A Community-Based System for Biodiversity Degradation, by Euphraith Muthoni Masinde (Kenya).

These applications touch upon related issues such as raising awareness of the impact that lifestyles have on the environment, monitoring energy and water consumption in hotels, promoting car sharing and sharing traditional and indigenous knowledge on biodiversity and conservation.

The winner of the competition - Lis Lugo Colls - will present their application during the upcoming ITU Green Standards Week, to be held in Rome (Italy) from 5 to 9 September 2011. As winner Lis Colls will receive a cash prize of USD 10,000 to further develop the application.

ITU would like to thank all developers for their interest and participation in this first App challenge. Overall 54 applications were received covering topics such as monitoring climate change, measurement of GHG emissions, adaptation and mitigation to climate change, and community engagement.

Click here for further information on the competition. More information on ITUs activities on climate change is available at www.itu.int/climate

22 August 2011 - 4th meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change to be held in Nairobi, Kenya

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:43:21 +0000

The 4th meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change (DCICC) will be held on the 30 of September in Nairobi, Kenya during the 6th annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The DCICC meeting will be opened by Chairman H.E. Hasanual Haq Inu, MP of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Parliamentary Standing Committee for Ministry of Post and Telecommunication.

The meeting will be held in conjunction with a workshop on Green ICTs and Innovation, moderated by Ms. Nevine Tewfik, Deputy Director of International Relations, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt. The meeting will be the latest of a series of events to promote knowledge sharing on environmental impacts associated with the Internet.

The meeting will bring together key specialists in the field, from government officials to private sector specialists, such as Microsoft, to public sector specialists, such as the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU), to international organization experts, such as UNEP, among others.

For more information, including the full program of the meeting refer to http://www.itu.int/themes/climate/dc/index.html

Find out more:

ITUs activities in climate change (www.itu.int/climate)
Email climate@itu.int to request further information about future ITU events

20 July 2011 - ITU joins the UN CC:Learn online platform

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:45:09 +0000

On July 2011 ITU became a partner of the One UN Training Service Platform for Climate Change (UN CC:Learn), an initiative driven by a partnership of 29 UN agencies to support Member States, international and regional organizations and other development partners in designing and implementing an effective approach of sustainable learning to address climate change.

The UN CC:Learn platform, launched at the 2009 UN Conference on Climate Change (COP-15), is part of the One UN Climate Change Action Framework of the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB). Through this online platform UN CC:Learn partners contribute to the implementation of Article 6 of the UNFCCC on training and education, fostering knowledge-sharing by delivering and evaluating climate change learning activities and materials at the global, regional and national level. Access to the online database of materials is free of charge and open to any stakeholder. The platform also includes a section of news related with partners of the initiative.

As a first step in this collaboration, ITU background resources on ICTs and climate change have been added to the UN CC:Learn library. Future collaboration will include the development of a One UN Training Package on climate change, as well as new introductory and advanced learning packages on specific climate change issues. Click here to access ITUs materials at the UN CC:Learn library.

Relevant links:

UN CC:Learn online platform (http://www.uncclearn.org/)
ITUs activities on climate change (www.itu.int/climate)

20 July 2011 - Green Standards Week, Rome, Italy

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:18:32 +0000

ITU is organizing the first Green Standards Week from 5 to 9 September in Rome, Italy. The cluster of workshops, hosted by Telecom Italia and supported by Huawei, RIM, Alcatel Lucent and Microsoft, will focus on raising awareness of the importance of using ICT standards to build a green economy and combat climate change. Full remote participation will be made possible with video, streamed audio and the ability to send questions via a moderator.

A High-Level Segment (HLS) will provide Ministers and senior representatives from the ICT industry with an opportunity to exchange views on how ICTs can help in the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the run-up to Durban (COP-17) and in preparation for the Earth Summit Rio +20 to be held in 2012. The HLS will aim to set transparent policy objectives and targets to measure and improve government green ICT strategies and standards, including ICT-enabled applications across the economy.

During the event the winner of the Green ICT Applications Challenge will be announced and be given the opportunity to present their concept for an app to combat climate change.

The first workshop will focus on methodologies for environmental impact assessment of ICT and will examine work underway to measure the impact of ICTs on climate change and how to standardize the way to calculate the reduction of GHG that ICTs have. This workshop will be jointly organized with the European Commission.

A second workshop will look at moving to a green economy through ICT standards will explore how ICTs can help to address climate change and build a green economy, shedding light on standards, policies and best practices. This workshop will be jointly organized with Telecom Italia.

The last day will see a workshop on using submarine communications networks to monitor the climate and will aim to encourage the development of new technologies and standards and will explore business opportunities for telecommunication companies to become active players in monitoring climate change. This workshop will be jointly organized by ITU, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Green Standards Week will bring together leading specialists in the field, from top policy-makers to engineers, designers, planners,
government officials, regulators, standards experts and others. It is open to participation by the press.

13 July 2011 - Technology a key tool in addressing environmental sustainability

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:49:42 +0000

ITUs message to global climate change conference

Geneva, 13 July, 2011 - Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP-17) in Durban, South Africa, attendees at the ITU Symposium on ICTs and Climate Change in Ghana have renewed calls for global leaders to recognize the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

An outcome document asks that ITU, as the UN specialized agency for ICTs, lead a coalition urging COP-17 delegates to look to the enormous potential of ICT solutions to cut emissions across all sectors. The document calls for the adoption of a closed loop approach to manufacturing and recycling which will reduce the need to extract and process raw materials. It also asks for recognition of the value of ICTs in monitoring deforestation, crop patterns and other environmental phenomena.

Full press release

05 July 2011 - Sixth ITU Symposium on ICTs and climate change to open this week in Accra, Ghana

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:10:37 +0000

The Sixth ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change will be opened on 7-8 of July in Accra, Ghana by the Director of ITUs Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, Mr Malcolm Johnson, and their excellences Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology of Ghana and Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications of Ghana.

Key sessions to be held throughout the 2-day event will include the High-Level Segment From Cancun via Accra to Durban A Roadmap on ICTs, Climate Change and the Environment, which will aim to set transparent policy objectives and targets to measure and improve government green ICT strategies. Speakers at this session will include, among others their excellences Mr Ruhakana Rugunda, Minister of Information and Communication Technology of Uganda and Mr Nelson Chamisa, Minister of Information and Communication Technology of Zimbabwe, together with Mr. Kyle Whitehill, CEO of Vodafone Ghana and M. Lawrence Atiase, Secretary General of the African Broadcasting Union.

The symposium will cover a broad number of topics related with the key role of ICTs to address climate change and environmental protection. Topics will range from climate change adaptation space and climate change and the impacts of e-waste. Overall more than 30 speakers will take part in the event, covering the points of view of governmental agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency of Ghana, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, JapanMeteoFrance or NASA, private sector companies, such as Microsoft, RIM, HP or France Telecom, or international organizations, such as the UNFCCC, WMO or the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, among others.

The event will be chaired by Mr. Paarock Vanpercy, Director General of the National Communications Authority (NCA) of Ghana. Click here to access the full program of the symposium. For more information on ITUs activities on climate change refer to www.itu.int/climate.

23 June 2011 - Developers: the new climate change heros?

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 07:17:48 +0000

Green application developers were inspired to contribute to ITUs Green ICT Application Challenge following a visit to the Guardians Activate event last week.

Participants in a 'Hacktivate' session were asked to develop and showcase apps that aim to improve lives through intelligent use of data and technology.

ITU and challenge sponsor Telefonica were given the opportunity to promote their Green ICT Application Challenge at the event inspiring some of the developers to incorporate green thinking into their apps.

High-speed internet connection, free APIs, expert advice, drinks and snacks were the ingredients used by more than 50 developers to put together apps including an app to help find your vegetable peelings a home; apps to give environmental credentials on products you might be interested in purchasing; an app to help you recycle unwanted items around your home and a climate quiz. More details can be found here.

03 June 2011 - In a time of growing carbon emissions, ITU invites the global community to look at the ICT sector as a solution provider to achieve emissions reductions

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:43:36 +0000

Two new releases from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Bank published this week during the 2011 Carbon Expo have raised significant concerns about the current trends in carbon emissions and the attainment of the targets pledged during the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16/CMP6), held in Cancun last December.

According to the latest IEA estimates, energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2010 were the highest in history, while 80 per cent of projected emissions from the power sector in 2020 are already locked in, largely due to infrastructure investment. IEA concludes in the 2010 World Energy Outlook that it will be extremely challenging to succeed in limiting temperature increase to 2°C by 2020 and thus, achieving the global goal agreed in Cancun, unless innovative alternatives are explored. These estimates are another wake-up call, highlighted IEA chief officials.

From a different angle the report, The State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2011, produced by the World Bank, highlights the decline of the carbon market over 2010 both in terms of carbon trading transactions and market value. According to the report, 2010 proved to be the hottest year on record, while global emission levels continued to rise relentlessly. Following the latter opposite trends between carbon market growth and emissions levels, the authors of the report predict that in their efforts to shift to lower carbon development paths, other national and local low-carbon initiatives will pick up in both developed and developing economies ... to overcome regulatory uncertainty and signal that, one way or another, solutions that address the climate challenge will emerge. Nevertheless, the report underlines the risk of losing billions of lower cost private investment and new technology solutions in developing countries offered via carbon market tools.

ITU, closely following these last technical assessments, invites the global community to look at the ICT sector as a solution provider to meet the goals agreed in Cancun. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as satellites, mobile phones or the Internet, can enable countries to take up transformative solutions to deploy innovative, energy efficient and low-carbon technologies that ensure a better, greener and sustainable future. The ICT sector is already committed to improve its own environmental impact, as well as to help improve the carbon footprint of other sectors.

Learn more about ITUs work in this area by joining us at the side event Linking ICTs with the Cancun Agreements to be held on 7 June 2011 in Bonn, Germany, during the forthcoming UN Climate Change Talks.

Find more information about ITUs activities on Climate Change at: www.itu.int/climate.

30 May 2011 - ITU and TechAmerica to organize a joint side event during the June UNFCCC Climate Change Talks

Mon, 30 May 2011 14:52:13 +0000

ITU and TechAmerica are organizing the side event Linking Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) with the Cancun Agreements. The event will take place on 7 June 2011 from 18.15 to 19.45, in Bonn (Germany) during the June UN climate change talks.

Among topics for discussion will be how ICTs can help adapt and mitigate climate change and what existing ICTs are affordable for developing countries. The event will also provide an opportunity to exchange views on how ICTs can help to implement the Cancun Agreements and will look at the new technologies to promote green ICTs and innovation.

More information available here.

30 May 2011 - ITU and TechAmerica to organize a joint side event during the June UNFCCC Climate Change Talks

Mon, 30 May 2011 09:19:19 +0000

ITU and TechAmerica are organizing the side event Linking Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) with the Cancun Agreements. The event will take place on 7 June 2011 from 18.15 to 19.45, in Bonn (Germany) during the June UN Climate Change Talks.

The event will discuss inter alia how ICTs can help adapt and mitigate climate change and what existing ICTs are affordable for developing countries. The event will also provide an opportunity to exchange views on how ICTs can help to implement the Cancun Agreements and will look at the new technologies to promote green ICTs and innovation.

The panel of the discussion will consist of the following speakers:

Ms. Cristina Bueti, ITU-T Climate Change Programme Coordinator, ITU
Mr. James Lovegrove, Managing Director of Tech America Europe
Ms. Helen Asiamah, Deputy Director, Environmental Protection Agency, Ghana
Moderator: Mr. Kevin Grose, Coordinator, Information Services Climate Change Secretariat UNFCCC

Venue: Room METRO (Ministry of Transport)

More information available at www.itu.int/climate

17 May 2011 - e-Environment day at WSIS Forum 2011 - Go Smart, Move Green!

Tue, 17 May 2011 21:35:35 +0000

ITU, UNEP, WMO and the Basel Convention will organize on 18 May 2011 a full program of activities during WSIS Forum 2011 related with the role of ICTs in the promotion of sustainable development and the preservation of the environment.

Organized around the theme Go smart, move green, the e-Environment day at WSIS Forum 2011 will include the following sessions:

10:30 - 13:00. ICT Sector Engagement Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Energy for ALL.

14:00 - 14:30. E-environment publication releases

14:45 - 16:15. Avoiding e-waste. Moving to environmentally sound life-cycle management of ICTs

16:30 - 18:00. From WSIS to Rio+20: The role of ICTs in sustainable development and the green economy transition

Key speakers will include representatives from ITU, GSMA, France Telecom, Microsoft, Telecom Italia, WMO or the Basel Convention, among others

Take part in the event and join us onsite from ILO conference center or via the webcast. Participation will be open to all stakeholders, including governments, private sector, civil society, academia, as well as international and regional institutions.

For further information please visit: www.wsis.org/forum/environment or contact us directly at climate@itu.int

10 May 2011 - ITU Universal Charging Solution made greener/leaner - Industry backing for charger update that extends device use

Tue, 10 May 2011 07:28:38 +0000

Geneva, 9 May 2011 ITUs one-size fits all universal charging solution has been further improved to maximize the benefits for end users by extending its use to a wider variety of devices and making it even more energy efficient.

A detachable cable with standardized end connectors will allow connection to devices including all mobile phones and other hand-held devices (including MP3/MP4 players, tablet computers, cameras, wireless headphones, GPS devices etc). This also means that it can be used for data transfer, avoiding an unnecessary duplicate cable and thus further reducing costs and e-waste.

Full press release

06 May 2011 - 6th ITU Climate Change Symposium announced in Ghana

Fri, 06 May 2011 14:46:17 +0000

ITUs Sixth Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change will take place 7-8 July in Ghana. The event will be hosted by the Ministry of Communications (MOC) of Ghana.

The main purpose of the event is to move forward the agenda on using ICTs to monitor climate change, mitigate and adapt to its effects and, identify future requirements for ITUs related work.

The symposium will also focus on the issue of ICTs, the environment and climate change in Africa and the needs of developing countries. Topics to be discussed will include mitigation and adaptation to climate change, e-waste, disaster planning, cost-effective ICT technologies, methodologies for the environmental impact assessment of ICTs, challenges and opportunities in the transition to a green and resource efficient economy.

The symposium will identify possible goals, commitments and modalities for the ICT sector to be developed in the process leading to the forthcoming 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17-CMP7), to be held in Durban, South Africa in November 2011. The event will also develop a set of recommendations for action in relation to ICTs, the environment and climate change towards a green economy, as a contribution to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD 2012 or Rio+20).

The event follows successful symposia between 2008 and 2010 in Kyoto, London, Quito, Seoul and Cairo. It will be preceded by a Training Seminar on Conformity and Interoperability for Africa that will be held from 4 to 6 July. It will bring together leading specialists in the field, from top policy-makers to engineers, designers, planners, government officials, regulators, standards experts and others.

For more information on the symposium see here.

18 April 2011 - Joint Coordination Activity on ICT and climate change (JCA-ICT&CC), (Geneva, 6 May 2011)

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:06:21 +0000

Joint Coordination Activity on ICT and climate change (JCA-ICT&CC), (Geneva, 6 May 2011)

Online registration

Joint Coordination Activity on ICT and climate change

15 April 2011 - Go Smart, Move Green at the e-Environment day @ WSIS forum 2011

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:22:22 +0000

The Information Society provides great opportunities to address some of the key global challenges related with the promotion of sustainable development and the preservation of the environment. But what exactly is the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in tackling climate change and how can they move forward the sustainable development agenda?

These questions have been addressed since 2003 in the multi-stakeholder process of the World Summit of Information Society (WSIS), in particular through the implementation of action line C7 - ICT applications, e-environment of the WSIS Geneva Plan of Action, which establishes the foundations for an Information Society for all.

Action line C7 focuses on environmental issues such as climate monitoring, adaptation to climate change, making better use of natural resources, recycling and disposing of end-of-life ICT equipment in an environmentally sound manner, and reduction of the carbon footprint of multiple sectors, including the ICT industry. These and other issues will be discussed during the E-environment day at WSIS Forum 2011, to be held in Geneva (Switzerland) on Wednesday 18 May 2011 under the theme Go Smart, move Green.

The event, organized by ITU together with the Basel Convention, UNEP and WMO, will also review the progress made so far in the implementation of this action line. Get engaged in the event and take part in workshops, interactive discussions, publication releases and networking sessions. Participation will be open to all stakeholders, including governments, private sector, civil society, academia, as well as international and regional institutions.

Join the Green ICT community by taking part in this event either on-site or remotely, presenting your recent publications during the event, or displaying the most recent activities from your organization at the e-environment exhibition stand.

For further information please visit: www.wsis.org/forum/environment or contact us directly at climate@itu.int

13 April 2011 - New ITU report highlights the role of regulators addressing climate change through green ICTs

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:18:00 +0000

ITU has released the 11th edition of its flagship ICT regulatory report Trends in Telecommunication Reform which takes an in-depth look at one of the most significant social trends of the past decade: the increasingly pervasive presence of ICTs in virtually every facet of modern life. The report highlights the importance of effective regulations in order to increase the benefits that ICTs can introduce in other sectors, as well as their positive contribution to economic growth. The report further highlights the changing/expanding role of regulators getting engaged in non-traditional areas of regulatory intervention such as climate change.

Chapter 7 of the report is dedicated to showcasing one of the above co-benefits: the potential of ICTs to address the causes and effects of climate change. Like every other industry, ICTs contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, they are also uniquely positioned to enable the reduction of emissions through smart energy management systems. The report recognizes the fact that no discussion of climate change is complete without close examination of the role of ICTs in creating, managing, and resolving the issue. Mr Brahima Sanou, Director of ITUs Telecommunication Development Bureau, states: Because ICTs touch all aspects of society, when setting sound policies and regulation the link between ICTs and major social issues like climate change, economic growth and digital lifestyles has to be taken into account.

Aspects highlighted in this section of the report include whether ICT regulators, particularly those in charge of regulating telecommunications service providers (TSPs), should have a more active role in promoting environmental protection and consider climate change issues when defining new regulations. The chapter also considers sector-specific regulatory interventions aimed at cutting GHG emissions from TSPs as well as facilitating the ability of TSPs to reduce emissions from other industry sectors.

Interested in reading the full report? You can now purchase the full report at the ITU bookstore: www.itu.int/pub/D-REG-TTR.12-2010

More about ITUs activities on climate change: www.itu.int/climate

13 April 2011 - App Challenge targets climate change - Cash prize for most innovative concept

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:01:00 +0000

Geneva, 12 April, 2011 ITU has launched a Green ICT Application Challenge to find the best and most innovative idea for a climate change focused app. The winning concept will be awarded USD10,000, thanks to challenge sponsors Research in Motion (RIM) and Telefónica.

As well as the cash prize, the winner will be invited to present their concept to a prestigious audience at ITUs Green Standards Week in Italy in September. In addition, the winning app may be developed and showcased during a side event to be held at the COP-17 climate change talks in South Africa in December.

Full press release

01 March 2011 - New section launched on ITUs Climate Change Website: Highlights from 2010

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:44:14 +0000

2010 was an eventful year of major events and activities for ITUs climate change program. From the 5th ITU symposium on ICTs, the environment and climate change to ITU´s participation at the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16), ITU made significant progress during 2010 in promoting the use of ICTs to address climate change.

Did you miss any of our activities? Relive them today and access our latest publications, events and recommendations in the new section Highlights from 2010, available at the ITU Climate Change page (www.itu.int/climate).

Direct link: http://www.itu.int/themes/climate/events/2010highlights.html

07 December 2010 - Climate change group progresses work in several areas

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:27:27 +0000

The latest meeting of ITU-Ts Study Group 5 in Geneva 23 November-1 December saw the beginning of work on two new Questions or work units - Setting up a low cost sustainable telecommunication infrastructure for rural communications in developing countries and Using ICTs to enable countries to adapt to climate change.

In addition and following the success of the Universal Charging Solution (Recommendation ITU-T L.1000), the meeting saw discussion on a Universal Battery solution.

Battery manufacturers, device manufacturers, operators and users will benefit, say experts but the task will be infinitely more complicated. At this early stage discussions focus on feasibility; scope; questions on e-waste; safety; and innovation freedom concerns.

A revision to the Universal Charging Solution (L.1000) was also discussed. Changes under debate include a minimum current value (850mA); detachable cable (USB A to micro-USB); electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements and no load power consumption (0.15W mandatory, 0.03W optional). It is hoped that this will be consented at the next meeting SG in April.

As well as progressing technical work the meeting saw presentations including a special guest Yuzhu You, University of Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Australia who talked about monitoring climate change using submarine cables the subject of a new Technology Watch report. In a special session presentations were also made on how to make Data Centers green; recycling rare metals from ICT waste; urban mining; and the universal power adapter for ICT devices: phases 1 and 2.

The meeting saw record attendance and ran for seven instead of the normal five days. Two new standards were consented in the field of protection against electromagnetic fields (EMF) and electromagnetic emanations. The first gives guidance on the long term monitoring of EMF and the second describes a test method and guide against information leaks through unintentional electromagnetic emissions.

28 November 2010 - Undersea cables for climate monitoring

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 15:18:10 +0000

A new ITU-T Technology Watch Report highlights how submarine cables can be used as a real-time global network to monitor climate change and to provide tsunami warnings.

Future generations of cables and associated components could have the capacity to directly measure climate variables, such as water temperature, salinity and pressure on the ocean floor. All this could be achieved over long periods of time at low cost.

Despite a wide range of tools to monitor oceans, oceanographers cannot measure water variables at the sea floor. Using Submarine Communications Networks to Monitor the Climate highlights how new and old submarine telecommunication cables could fill this gap.

The report, by Yuzhu You of the Institute of Marine Science, University of Sydney, Australia invites ITU experts to study the topic further, particularly with a view to identifying areas for standardization.

28 November 2010 - ITU Contribution to Guardian blog

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 15:10:31 +0000

Director of ITUs Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, Malcolm Johnson, has be-come a regular contributor to the Guardians Low carbon ICT blog.

Two articles to date:

Time to recognise the power of ICT for environmental change

We need a level playing field to measure carbon emissions from ICT

24 November 2010 - Climate change group meets this week in Geneva

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:18:34 +0000

ITU-Ts Study Group 5 on environment and climate change meets this week in Geneva and has seen record levels of attendance and contributions; including 11 new countries participating for the first time.

The group, which recently adopted the universal mobile phone charger, is working on among other things a set of methodologies for ICT companies to measure their carbon footprint, and to estimate the considerable saving in global green house gas emissions that can be achieved through the use of ICTs.

Also on the table at that this meeting are several proposals relating to electromagnetic fields (EMF) issues. EMF was the subject of a new Resolution at the recent Plenipotentiary Conference tasking ITU to increased its work in the area. This meeting will see a new ITU-T Recommendation on Monitoring of the EMF level put forward for consent (first stage approval). The proposed standard will give guidance for monitoring of EMF and provide the general public with clear and easily available data concerning EMF levels.

10 September 2010 - ITU and WIPO event on ICTs and Intellectual Property for Mitigating Climate change

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:08:05 +0000

ITU and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO ) have announced this week that they will co-organize a side event at the next UN Climate Change Conference, which will be held in Tianjin, China, from Monday 4 to Saturday, October 2010.

The event The Effective Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the Intellectual Property (IP) System for Mitigating Climate Change, which will take place on Thursday 7^th October 2010, will provide a platform where top decision-makers from governments, and experts from international organizations and the private sector can debate the potential role and impact that ICTs and the IP system can have in promoting innovation and the evolution of new technologies, and encourage/advocate broader access to those technologies for the purpose of preventing further climate change.

Additional information on the event can be found at:

http://www.itu.int/themes/climate/events/itu-wipo-unfcccOct2010.html

More about ITU´s activities on climate change and green ICTs:

http://www.itu.int/themes/climate/index.html

More about WIPO´s activities on climate change:

http://wipo.int/climate/en/

11 December 2009 - 7-18 December: ITU programme at the UNFCCC iseeT@COP15 Kiosk to be held every day from 13.00 to 14.00 hours during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:14:04 +0000

The 2009 exhibition of the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will focus on how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are helping to increase awareness and to support concrete action on climate change in both developing and developed countries.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is contributing a special programme of daily "business talks" by leaders in the ICT sector from both developing and developed countries which will be held every day from 13.00 to 14.00 hours from 7 to 18 December 2009.

More information on the ITU programme can be found at: http://www.itu.int/themes/climate/events/ict-kiosk-cop15.html

11 December 2009 - 10 December: ITU-WIPO Side-event on "The effective use of ICTs and the IP system for mitigating climate change"

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:11:35 +0000

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) organized a joint side-event with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on "The effective use of ICTs and the IP system for mitigating climate change" where top decision-makers from governments, international organizations and industry shared their views and solutions on how ICTs can help to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change and debated over the potential role and impact of the intellectual property (IP) system in promoting the development of new technologies, and in leveraging access to technology.

More information on the programme can be found at: http://www.itu.int/themes/climate/events/itu-wipo-cop15.html

More information on the ITU programme at the IseeTKiosk @ COP15 can be found at: http://www.itu.int/themes/climate/events/ict-kiosk-cop15.html

ITU and Climate Change

11 December 2009 - Broadband will cut carbon by 5 per cent down under: PM

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:49:54 +0000

Australias Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has announced that the countrys A$43 billion high-speed broadband network now under construction - will reduce his country's carbon emissions by five per cent. It seems, the role that information and communication technologies (ICT) can play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been accepted by at least one world leader, if not by many others.

The stand-up-and-be-counted guy is the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd who will be attending the global climate change meeting in Copenhagen this week. Speaking to a broadband conference in Sydney earlier today Mr. Rudd said the reduction in travel costs made possible by the use of telepresence video conferencing technology and the facilitation of smart metering energy usage monitoring are two reasons why the countrys National Broadband Network (NBN) will be successful in reducing the countrys carbon emissions by an impressive five per cent. Together, the NBN and CPRS (carbon pollution reduction scheme) are critical to Australia's efforts to address climate change, he said.

"It is also essential for many of the technologies that will help us reduce carbon emissions, improve health services, create a world class education system and improve opportunities for all Australians, no matter where they live, he added.

Full article

More information on the ITU programme at the IseeTKiosk @ COP15 can be found at: http://www.itu.int/themes/climate/events/ict-kiosk-cop15.html

ITU - Climate Change

18 June 2013 - Calling all smart sustainable city enthusiasts

14 June 2013 - Durban events focus on spam, e-waste and the outcomes of WTSA and WCIT

10 June 2013 - TSAG delivers new focus group on smart water management

22 May 2013 - European Commission backs ITU eco-impact methodologies

09 May 2013 - Smart sustainable cities need holistic approach, say global stakeholders

18 April 2013 - ITU called on to enable smart water management

17 April 2013 - 8th ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change

03 April 2013 - New Agenda seeks to transform e-waste into opportunity

28 March 2013 - Egypt to host first ITU Smart Water event

26 February 2013 - Central American workshop to promote environmentally sound e-waste management

12 February 2013 - ITU establishes Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities

01 February 2013 - 3rd Green ICT Application Challenge: Deadline extended

16 October 2012 - ITU universal power adapter for wider range of ICTs

26 September 2012 - ICT stakeholders set out carbon commitments

20 September 2012 - Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Information & Communications Technologies (ICTs): the Case of Ghana

20 September 2012 - Boosting Energy Efficiency through Smart Grids

20 September 2012 - Guidance on Green ICT Procurement

20 September 2012 - Review of Mobile Handset Eco-Rating Schemes

20 September 2012 - Greening ICT Supply Chains  Survey on Conflict Minerals Due Diligence Initiatives

20 September 2012 - ITU-GeSI report uncovers opportunity to decrease e-waste

06 September 2012 - Green Standards Week high level participants confirmed: Register now

14 August 2012 - Green Standards Week drives tech sustainability strategies

07 August 2012 - African regional groups identify their priorities for ITU-T

26 July 2012 - New ITU/WMO/UNESCO-IOC reports investigate the climate-monitoring and disaster-warning potential of submarine communications cables

03 July 2012 - Social Electricity takes first prize in ITUs 2nd Green ICT Application Challenge

12 June 2012 - ITU event closes with green call to international community

10 May 2012 - E-environment at WSIS Forum 2012 - Advancing The Sustainable Development Agenda Through ICTs

24 April 2012 - New ITU-T standards target improved energy efficiency of ICT equipment

16 April 2012 - ITU symposium highlights need to make technology a key part of the climate change solution - Montreal meeting to focus on ICTs and environmental sustainability

16 April 2012 - Program announced for 7th ITU symposium on ICTs, the environment and climate change

04 April 2012 - Broadband can lead the transformation to a green economy. New report from the Broadband Commission

28 March 2012 - Tutorial on ITU methodologies for assessing the environmental impact of ICTs

16 March 2012 - ITU joins SDOs from China, Japan and Korea to enhance cooperation

13 March 2012 - 100 days to Rio+20: the role of ICTs in The Future We Want

06 March 2012 - Community bicycle application wins ITU-Telefonica Green ICT Hackathon

02 March 2012 - Introducing key outcomes from WRC-12 on climate monitoring, disaster relief and climate change

02 February 2012 - Call for new apps to address sustainable energy for all

19 January 2012 - ICTs and climate change: ITUs highlights in 2011

16 December 2011 - ITU joins the UN System to provide its perspectives on a Green Economy

15 December 2011 - ITU Green App Challenge - Meet the WINNER! - Interview with Ms Lis Lugo Colls

13 December 2011 - COP17 closes with agreements on second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol and on the next steps for the negotiations

07 December 2011 - Special Issue of ITU News Magazine on ICTs and Climate Change Released at COP17/CMP7

01 December 2011 - Joint the ICT DAY at the 2011 UN Climate Change Conference

01 December 2011 - ICTs can move the climate change agenda forward

29 November 2011 - Announcing the launch of a Global Survey on e-Waste

25 November 2011 - ITU Green App Challenge - Meet the developers! (#4) - Interview with Mr Praneel Raja

15 November 2011 - ITUs submission to the Rio+20 compilation document: ICTs are Major Cross-cutting Drivers of Sustainable Development

10 November 2011 - ITU Green App Challenge - Meet the developers! (#3) - Interview with Ms. Maria Dolores Rodriguez De Azero

08 November 2011 - Ninth Meeting of Joint Coordination Activity on ICT & Climate Change (JCA-ICT&CC), 23 November 2011, Geneva, Switzerland

07 November 2011 - ITU Green App Challenge - Meet the developers! (#2) - Interview with Mr. Stephan Reiter and Ms. Simone Ferlin

31 October 2011 - ITU Green App Challenge - Meet the developers! - Interview with Ms. Euphraith Muthoni Masinde

29 September 2011 - International agreement on green ICT methodology - ITU addresses conflict minerals, environmentally-friendly batteries

23 September 2011 - Speakers announced for the 4th meeting of the DCICC, to be held in Nairobi

12 September 2011 - ICT industry backs greenhouse gas emissions methodology - Green standards take centre stage at Rome event

01 September 2011 - Winner announced for the first ITU Green ICT Application Challenge: Top prize goes to Smart Recycling App

22 August 2011 - 4th meeting of the Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change to be held in Nairobi, Kenya

20 July 2011 - ITU joins the UN CC:Learn online platform

20 July 2011 - Green Standards Week, Rome, Italy

13 July 2011 - Technology a key tool in addressing environmental sustainability

05 July 2011 - Sixth ITU Symposium on ICTs and climate change to open this week in Accra, Ghana

23 June 2011 - Developers: the new climate change heros?

03 June 2011 - In a time of growing carbon emissions, ITU invites the global community to look at the ICT sector as a solution provider to achieve emissions reductions

30 May 2011 - ITU and TechAmerica to organize a joint side event during the June UNFCCC Climate Change Talks

30 May 2011 - ITU and TechAmerica to organize a joint side event during the June UNFCCC Climate Change Talks

17 May 2011 - e-Environment day at WSIS Forum 2011 - Go Smart, Move Green!

10 May 2011 - ITU Universal Charging Solution made greener/leaner - Industry backing for charger update that extends device use

06 May 2011 - 6th ITU Climate Change Symposium announced in Ghana

18 April 2011 - Joint Coordination Activity on ICT and climate change (JCA-ICT&CC), (Geneva, 6 May 2011)

15 April 2011 - Go Smart, Move Green at the e-Environment day @ WSIS forum 2011

13 April 2011 - New ITU report highlights the role of regulators addressing climate change through green ICTs

13 April 2011 - App Challenge targets climate change - Cash prize for most innovative concept

01 March 2011 - New section launched on ITUs Climate Change Website: Highlights from 2010

07 December 2010 - Climate change group progresses work in several areas

28 November 2010 - Undersea cables for climate monitoring

28 November 2010 - ITU Contribution to Guardian blog

24 November 2010 - Climate change group meets this week in Geneva

10 September 2010 - ITU and WIPO event on ICTs and Intellectual Property for Mitigating Climate change

11 December 2009 - 7-18 December: ITU programme at the UNFCCC iseeT@COP15 Kiosk to be held every day from 13.00 to 14.00 hours during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

11 December 2009 - 10 December: ITU-WIPO Side-event on "The effective use of ICTs and the IP system for mitigating climate change"

18 April 2013 - ITU called on to enable smart water management

20 September 2012 - Greening ICT Supply Chains Survey on Conflict Minerals Due Diligence Initiatives

03 July 2012 - Social Electricity takes first prize in ITUs 2nd Green ICT Application Challenge

13 March 2012 - 100 days to Rio+20: the role of ICTs in The Future We Want

02 February 2012 - Call for new apps to address sustainable energy for all

19 January 2012 - ICTs and climate change: ITUs highlights in 2011

15 November 2011 - ITUs submission to the Rio+20 compilation document: ICTs are Major Cross-cutting Drivers of Sustainable Development

29 September 2011 - International agreement on green ICT methodology - ITU addresses conflict minerals, environmentally-friendly batteries

01 September 2011 - Winner announced for the first ITU Green ICT Application Challenge: Top prize goes to Smart Recycling App

01 March 2011 - New section launched on ITUs Climate Change Website: Highlights from 2010

11 December 2009 - 7-18 December: ITU programme at the UNFCCC iseeT@COP15 Kiosk to be held every day from 13.00 to 14.00 hours during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change