Transcript ICTs and Climate Change

ICTs, ITU-T and
Climate Change
Arthur Levin, Head, Standardization Policy
Division (ITU-T)
Virtual Symposium
23 September 2009
International
Telecommunication
Union
The views expressed in this presentation are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the ITU or its Membership.
Evidence for Climate
Change
Source: IPCC 4th assessment report, 2007
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ICTs as a cause of
global warming
 ICTs (excluding
broadcasting)
contribute an
estimated 2-2.5%
of global
Greenhouse Gas
emissions
 Around 0.9
tonnes GtCO2e in
2007
 Telecoms
contributed
around one
quarter of this
total
Source: Gartner Group (2007)
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Toward a New Global
Framework
2007 COP-13 in Bali launched process for negotiation of new Agreement
 Established AWGLCA (Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term
Cooperative Action) to develop work program
2008 AWGLCA meetings
 Bangkok (31 March–4 April)
 Bonn (2-13 June)
 Accra (21-27 August)
2009 Meeting of COP-14
 Poznan, Poland (1-12 December)
2009 COP-15 meets and expected to conclude Agreement
 Bonn (29 March-8 April)
 Bonn (1-12 June)
 Three further sessions will be held prior to Copenhagen: 10-14
August in Bonn (informal meeting); 28 September-9 October in
Bangkok and 2-6 November in Barcelona.
 Copenhagen (7-18 December)
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WTSA-08
 Resolution 73 on Climate Change
 Notes conclusion of GSS that ICT industry
can set an example by committing to
specific programs with objectives to
reduce overall GHG emissions
 Recognizes that ICTs can make a substantial
contribution and be a major factor to mitigate the
effects of climate change, for example through energyefficient devices, applications and networks
 Resolves that CC is a high priority in ITU as part of our
contribution to UN processes and global efforts to moderate
climate change
 Resolves to promote adoption of recommendations to
ensure greater energy efficient of ICT devices and
reduce GHG emissions in all sectors
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WTPF – Opinion 3
 World Telecommunication and Policy Forum was held on 2224 April 2009 in Lisbon, Portugal
 Lisbon Consensus - Opinion 3 “ICT and the Environment”

Invited:
– the ITU Secretary-General
a)
to bring the content of Resolution 73 (WTSA-08) on
Information and communication technologies and climate change
to the attention of the ITU Council and take appropriate actions,
taking into consideration the United Nations commitment to lead
by example, to achieve climate-neutral status within three years;
b)
to continue, within the mandate of the ITU, to cooperate
and collaborate with other entities within the UN in formulating
future international efforts for the effective addressing of climate
change, and to report the results of these efforts to the Council;
– The Deputy Secretary-General and the Directors of the
Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, the
Radiocommunication Bureau and the Telecommunication
Development Bureau
a)
to continue to work together, and with relevant study
groups, to raise the awareness of these issues, especially in
developing countries, as work progresses in their respective
Sectors;
b)
to promote liaison with other relevant organizations in
order to avoid duplication of work and to optimize the use of
resources.
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ITU-T: Building
Knowledge on Climate
Change
 ITU-T issued TECHWATCH Reports on CC and
positive impact of new technologies

Next Generation Networks, Intelligent Transport
Systems, etc.
 Organizing Major Symposia on ICT and CC
 2008: Kyoto and London
 2009: Quito and Seoul (virtual event)
 ITU-T pioneering energy efficient work methods
 Paperless meetings, on-line work tools, etc.
 ITU-T leading Dynamic Coalition on Internet and
Climate Change as part of IGF
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The Challenge in the
Pacific
 Financing
 Who will pay the bill for using ICTS for adaptation and
mitigation
 Impact of CC is costly even though Pacific Islands
are not a major source of emissions
 Total GHG emissions of Pacific Island countries is around
0.03% of global total
 Half the population of island countries live with less than
a mile of their coastlines; coral atolls no more than 3
meters above sea level
 Impact of CC on marine environment, particularly
on coral reefs, fisheries ad food security
 Global Humanitarian Forum estimates CC already
killing 300,000 people annually (0.8C degree
warming)
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The Challenge in the
Americas
 Deforestation
 17-20 percent of GHG emissions
 Financing
 Who will pay the bill for using ICTS for adaptation and
mitigation
 Region includes 5 of 10 most biodiverse
countries
 At risk for large losses
 Impact of CC is costly and exceeds even though not
a major source of emissions
 Hurricane damage will increase by 10-26% for each 1
degree warming of sea
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Mitigating the impact
 Directly, e.g., through energy-saving
 Next-Generation Networks (NGN) should reduce GHG
emissions by 40%
 Modern radio technologies reduce energy
consumption by transmitters ~ 10 times
 Indirectly, e.g. ICTs for carbon abatement
 Video-conferencing to reduce business travel in
Europe by 1% would save 1m CO2 tonnes
 Systemically, e.g., by “dematerialisation”
 Intelligent Transport Systems could reduce vehicle
carbon emissions below 130g per km
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Towards a climate
neutral ICT sector
 NTT’s “Total Power Revolution” saved 124m kWh in
2007
 BT has reduced carbon emissions by 60% compared
since 1996
 Telefonica created a Climate Change Office and is
committed to reducing its consumption of network
electricity by 30 per cent by 2015.
 Other initiatives:
 GeSI, Green Grid, WattWatt, FTTH Council Europe, EU
codes of conduct, CBI Task Force etc
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Networks and Systems:
optical access
Although ICT networks and systems emit CO2, they can also
reduce direct CO2 output and have the additional capability of
enabling other sectors of society to reduce their carbon
footprint.
Energy MWh/Y Cost M€/Y (100k subs)
GPON Energy and Cost efficiency
1400
1200
80 % Energy
& Cost savings
By replacing
ADSL2+
With PON *)
1000
800
600
400
 With the introduction of fiber
technology fixed networks gained
additional speed and increased
range while at the same time
reducing power consumption.
 The energy efficiency improvement
of fiber networks compared to
copper networks is tremendous.
200
0
ADSL2+
Energy Consumption (MWh/y)
PON FTTH
Cost (k€/Y)
*) Costs for air conditioning are not considered
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Using ICTs for carbon
abatement /
displacement
 Reducing / substituting for travel
 In 2007, Telstra held 7’500 video conferences saving 4’200
tonnes of CO2
 Flexible work arrangements
 Each one million EU workers could save one million tonnes
of CO2 annually by telecommuting
 Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)
 In-car systems to assist in “eco-driving” can reduce CO2
emissions by up to 20 per cent
 Dematerialization (replacing atoms with bits)
 ITU-T Recommendations Online save 105 million tonnes of
CO2 annually compared with distribution of paper copies
Sources: Climate Risk report for Telstra, ETNO/WWF report, Toyota, ITU
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Case-study:
Comparison of GHG emissions of
postal mail and e-mail services
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What trends do ICTs
have at the device level?
 Market doubles every 5 years[1]
 E.g. Broadband expanding to more users
 Until market saturates
 Then upgrades replace ‘obsolete’ devices
 New devices become a ‘must have’
 E.g. HDTV
 Annual growth rate of internet traffic is 85%[2]
 Increasing the energy conversion depending on the relative
efficiency of devices in J/bit
 Unsustainable growth at the micro level (see previous
slide)
 All three trends increase demand for energy
mostly sourced from fossil fuel
 the GeSI Smart 2020 report predicts growth in ICTs of
70% over the period 2007-2020
[1] Source Lynn Hutcheson Ovum. www.ovum.com
[2] cfp.mit.edu/events/jan08/presentations/ODLYZKO-traffic-growth.ppt
[3] http://www.smart2020.org/
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How do ITU standards
contribute?
 Ensuring public safety
 E.g. Allocation of radio spectrum without interference (e.g.
aviation frequencies, navigation systems)
 Ensuring interoperability
 E.g. devices from different vendors
 Focus market to ensure competitive supply
 High volumes, low prices
 Adopt ‘best practice’ and ‘de-risk’ supply
 Higher volumes
 In standards we have always worked towards
higher efficiency solutions
 This will lead to lower emissions (when deployed within a GHG
emission limited environment)
 We need now to consider GHG emissions reduction as a clear
driver for standards
 Is there more we can do?
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ITU-T Challenges
 Develop a methodology to measure
impact of ICTs as part of national GHG
reduction programs
 Identify priority sectors where ICTs can
reduce emissions (e.g. smart buildings
 Disposal of ICTs
 Adopt green working methods
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Deliverables: FG on
ICT&CC
 Deliverable 1: Definition
 Defines the terms needed to analyze the major relationships
between ICTs and Climate Change
 Deliverable 2: Gap analysis and standards
roadmap
 Shows ongoing work (done by ITU, other standard bodies,
universities, etc.) and future study issues
 Deliverable 3: Methodologies
 Covers the assessment of ICT sector’s emission over the entire
life cycle of ICT devices
 Also covers reducing other sector’s emission by the use of ICT
 Deliverable 4: Direct and Indirect Impact of ITU
Standards
 Provides tools and guidelines to evaluate the reduction of
emission of ICT sector and of other sector by the use of ICT
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ITU-T and Climate
Change: Setting the
Standard
 FG on ICT&CC concluded with 4 Deliverables in
March 2009.
 Inputs from non-ITU members (e.g., academia) were
also taken into considerations
 All SGs examining impact of recommendations
on climate change
 SGs developing standards for new energy
efficient technologies
 E.g. SG-13 on Next Generation Networks
 NGN estimated to be 40% more energy efficient
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Related Study Groups
 Lead SG: SG5
 SG13
 Monitoring related Question: Principles and functional
architecture for NGN (including ubiquitous networking)
(Q5/13)
 Future network related Question: Future Networks
(Q21/13)
 SG15
 Transport network related Questions: Access networks
(Q.1/15), Optical access (Q.2/15), Core networks
(Q.3/15), Metal access (Q.4/15), Protection/restoration
(Q.9/15)
 SG16
 RFID related Questions: Q.21/16 (multimedia
applications and services) and Q.22/16 (multimedia
architecture)
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Use of ITU-T Standards
to mitigate climate
change: ITS
 SG16 started related work
 Examples of advantages:
 Dynamic Navigation (Collection of traffic,
environment, and floating car data, Dynamic route
guidance)
 ADAS (Adaptive Cruise Control(ACC), Intelligent
Speed Adaption(ISA), etc.)
 Telemetric Services (Real-time remote diagnostics,
Alteration of driver behavior, etc.)
 Delivery of congestion and danger spots information
by using Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-toinfrastructure communications.
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Some
Background
Materials
 ITU Climate Change site
www.itu.int/climate
 Climate Change symposia website
 www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange
 Technology Watch Briefing Reports
 www.itu.int/ITU-T/techwatch/reports.html
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