1. Introduction

The theme "Telecommunications and the Environment" is a particularly important subject which could hardly be more relevant to the world today.

An outsider, and even someone working in an area specifically concerned with the environment, might well ask what telecommunications and the environment have to do with each other.

At first sight, the environment, in the broadest sense of the word, would seem to be unrelated to telecommunications. And yet, there are very real links between the two. They are in fact more or less inseparable.

It is a generally established fact that telecommunications serve as a tool for development. What kind of development do we mean? The answer is clear: sustainable development. If we first consider the problem of the environment and then define the concept of sustainable development, it should be easy to demonstrate the almost organic links between telecommunications and the environment, taking a look at existing technologies, the information they convey in all its forms and the extent to which they can provide solutions to the problem of environmental protection.

2. The problem of the environment

Human beings were quick to establish an absolute dichotomy between nature and themselves: nature was theirs, and existed only to serve them. And it is perhaps this attitude that lies at the origin of man’s ecological sins.

While it is clear that the problem of the environment has existed as long as mankind itself, actual awareness of the problem has developed gradually, as the damage inflicted on nature has become more and more serious.

It is interesting to observe that already by the end of the 19^th century, many people living in highly industrialized areas, were complaining to the courts about noise, smoke, bad smells and other effects of industrial pollution. There are a fairly large number of judicial decisions on record: in the vast majority of cases, the claim was dismissed on the grounds that the industries were vital for the economic growth of the countries in question and for the satisfaction of individual needs, and that it was perfectly natural that some people should suffer a certain degree of inconvenience.

These phenomena, originally limited in time and space, were characteristic of the industrialized countries, whose growth models seemed to give absolute priority to industrialization. This industrialization, which was one of the major causes of the drift away from the land and unbridled urbanization, ushered in a civilization which without realizing it, was sacrificing its natural environment for the sake of immediate profit.

The awakening of man’s ecological awareness can be divided into two, or perhaps three, essential stages.

During the first stage, the degradation of nature was viewed as a phenomenon restricted in time and space, harmful in any specific case, but without a serious and irreversible negative impact at the national level, much less at the regional or world level. To the extent that man felt the need to curb acts that were harmful to nature, he did so in the same way as he would try to curb acts affecting other specific kinds of legal property, and not because he felt that his social, economic and spiritual balance was at stake.

Man was not yet aware that the environment was made up of finite, quantifiable and limited elements. He remained convinced that nature had an unlimited capacity for regeneration, despite numerous warnings, particularly from scientists, that this was not true.

It was not until the extraordinary explosion of industrial and technological development during the Second World War and the accompanying increase in the rate of pollution and deterioration of the biosphere that ecologists were finally able to get the problem officially recognized by the international community.

In this connection, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in June 1972 constitutes the symbolic turning point in the growing awareness of a problem, which, after scattered attempts to find solutions at the regional level, now acquired an international dimension. World leaders seemed at long last to have responded to the alarm signals that the ecologists had been sending out for decades.

It should be stressed, however, that the awakening was more intense in countries in which the problems engendered by industrial and technological civilization were particularly acute and in those with a particularly advanced level of social and political consciousness.

The year 1972 thus saw the beginning of the second stage, in which contemporary science, still unable to conceive of man and his environment as an organic whole, was trying to get away from its analytical and reductionist approach.

Although the Stockholm Conference recognized the relationship between the environment and development and although that relationship was one of the fundamental themes of the report by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, it must be admitted that between 1972 and 1985, the specific incorporation of development and environment problems into economic planning and basic decision-making remained practically non-existent. While progress was made in certain cases, the Earth’s environment generally deteriorated throughout the 1980s.

A broad international consensus emerged, however, with respect to the depletion of the ozone layer. Thus it is no coincidence that during this second stage, the international community joined forces under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to develop international legal instruments to deal with threats to the environment, the first of which concerned the ozone layer: the Vienna Convention, followed by the Montreal Protocol.

While the preparation and adoption of these instruments (between 1985 and 1989) represented progress, they were a far cry from the ambitions and goals of the international community and, more importantly, they fell short of its needs. The results were disappointing because the means of implementing the commitments made were inadequate, particularly in the developing countries.

The post-Stockholm period, however, which not only turned out to be disappointing in its efforts to integrate development and environmental concerns in any concrete way, but also saw a steady degradation of the environment combined with a sharply increased awareness of certain particularly serious cases of environmental damage, did lead the international community to develop the first international legal instruments with respect to the environment (the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Basle Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, the framework convention on climate change, the Biodiversity Convention and the Convention to combat Desertification). These instruments are intended to be more comprehensive in their objectives, broader in terms of participation, better able to respond to the needs of the developing countries and, above all, as binding and effective as possible.

These mixed results, coupled with constant improvements in the evaluation of the environment made possible by scientific advances, led to what might be called the third stage, when the United Nations General Assembly convened a United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in order to inject new life into environment and development principles that seemed to have aged prematurely.

One of the great merits of this Conference, held in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro and attended by the largest ever number of Heads of State and Government, was to establish for the first time an organic relationship between the concepts of environment and development.

This new conception was fundamentally different from the traditional approach, which had tried without success to solve environment and development problems separately and on a case-by-case basis. UNCED represented a turning point in the way nations viewed the relationship between development and the environment. UNCED’s watchword, reflected in its basic instruments, which were signed by the leaders of almost all nations, is "sustainable development". And it is through this concept that telecommunications recover their full multidimensional significance.

The concept of sustainable development in a sense reformulates the entire question of the relationship between economic growth and nature. Indeed, while economic development devours the very substance on which it rests, there is really no alternative but to develop. The economic should therefore handle development in such a way as to replenish the environment, on which it relies for its resources, but also for the disposal of its waste.

In its Resolution 38/161 of 19 December 1983, the United Nations General Assembly welcomes the creation of a special commission to submit a report on environment and the global problematic to the year 2000 and beyond.

In its report, the Commission defines the strategy required for a sustainable development as "development which meets the requirements of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their own needs". Thus, viewed within the framework of a global approach, sustainable development would bring inter-generational notions of equity with respect to natural resources to the forefront of world preoccupation.

One of the key elements of sustainable development is, logically enough, sustainability. This concept is of relevance to developed and developing countries alike. The objectives of economic and social development are defined as a function of time.

Interpretations may vary from one country to another, but they should all have certain elements in common.

As the concept of sustainability has been defined in many different ways, it may be useful to single out two different angles of approach. On the one hand there is the economic approach, which stresses the importance of handing down growth potential to future generations; on the other the ecological approach, which distinguishes between "artificial" capital and "natural" capital; the latter cannot be replaced, because the essential ecosystems are unique. Sustainable development is really a combination of the two approaches.

Finally, it should be noted that UNCED set itself two main objectives:

- the preparation of an "Earth Charter", called the "Rio Declaration", and

- the development of the so-called "Action 21 Programme" or "Agenda 21".

The Rio Declaration

This Declaration is a basic document setting out 27 principles which should govern man’s relationship with the environment. It establishes guidelines for sustainable development and aims to ensure and provide a guarantee for the common future of mankind, both in the field of the environment and in the field of development, inter alia by urging States to cooperate in a spirit of world partnership based on the principle of shared but differentiated responsibilities.

Although it is not legally binding, the Rio Declaration is intended to promote a new form of international cooperation which goes beyond the framework of simple North/South relations.

The Action 21 Programme

The Action 21 Programme establishes strategies aimed at eliminating the effects of environmental degradation and promoting ecologically sound sustainable development. It contains a complete set of measures for the future, and describes the numerous activities to be undertaken by Governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.

Over and above its legitimate aims in the face of the real danger threatening the Earth with the degradation of the environment due to three main causes:

1. direct or indirect results of human activity;
2. natural phenomena (disasters such as floods, earthquakes, cyclones, etc.);
3. natural causes aggravated by human activities, desertification, drought, etc.,

The Action 21 Programme represents an ingenious framework for implementing a new system of relations designed to protect the environment and promote sustainable development. It goes beyond the scope of conventional aid, which no longer provides an adequate basis for relations between rich and poor countries. Conventional approaches must be replaced by new mechanisms of cooperation.

The Action 21 Programme is divided into four sections and forty chapters. Without going into the detail of their content or even listing their titles, I will simply mention the first two section titles, which are revealing enough in themselves:

1. Economic and social dimensions;
2. Conservation and management of resources for development.

The entire Action 21 Programme rests on the concept of sustainable development, whatever the sector concerned.

The introduction referred to the generally accepted idea that telecommunications constitute a tool for development. Expressed in those terms, this idea is perhaps oversimplified, and does not reflect the reality of the situation.

Telecommunications should be viewed, rather, as a medium and vehicle for the information on the basis of which human action should, in the normal course of events, lead to the achievement of sustainable development, In a way, telecommunications are to information what rails are to a train.

It may thus be said that no sustainable development project can be successful without telecommunications.

In this connection, the study submitted by the Japanese delegation to the World Telecommunication Development Conference in Buenos Aires, as contained in Document 35 and Add. 1, seems particularly relevant. It provides some initial responses to the complex problems of urban congestion encountered in many developed and developing countries.

The study suggests that the need for travel may be, if not totally eliminated, then at least substantially reduced by on-line banking or telecommuting. Quite rightly, it makes the feasibility of such projects contingent on three factors:

1. Level of development of the telecommunication infrastructure.
2. Dominant means of transport in the country or city in question.
3. Social or business background.

The first benefit from this type of project is to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and in particular CO₂, thereby diminishing atmospheric pollution and protecting the ozone layer, which is under serious threat.

The second benefit is the positive effect on the energy situation, through savings in consumption.

In this connection, it should be noted that the French authorities are currently conducting and original experiment, which involves installing sophisticated instruments at key points in several large towns in France in order to measure the rate of emission of greenhouse effects gases, and in particular CO₂ pollution levels. The data collected are transmitted via an electronic system to a central unit and immediately published in the form of bulletins accessible to the public at large.

This experiment was probably prompted by the worrying increase in the number of persons admitted to hospital with respiratory complaints due to air pollution and new allergies for which the allergens responsible have not yet been identified.

These phenomena are not confined to the industrialized countries. They are also encountered with the same level of severity in some developing countries.

Furthermore, with the erosion of the ozone layer, the number of persons suffering from skin cancer is constantly increasing, with the result that urgent measures are required to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases such as CFCs, which are the major culprits.

· Telecommunications can make a direct contribution to the implementation of environmental programmes

This can be illustrated by taking as an example telephony, and in particular rural telephony, which, through the infrastructure it sets up, aims to provide an impetus for multi-sectoral integrated development, creating lasting jobs, wealth and prosperity.

The first sector to benefit is agriculture. Improved access to the information needed to develop operating, marketing and distribution methods for agricultural produce and manufactured goods will help to stem the tide of migration to towns, keep people settled in their original environment, encourage them to work the land, and hence relieve congestion in often over-populated large towns; and this cannot but in turn accelerate growth of the rural economy, and hence improve the living conditions of the rural population.

Then, of course, come all the other components of integrated rural development, such as the construction of road networks, the provision of public services, the attraction of national and foreign investment for the establishment of various industries, and so forth, in order to meet the needs of the people concerned.

In cultural terms, integrated rural development will mean the opening of more schools, public libraries, youth clubs and cinemas, in other works the creation of all the infrastructure required to promote access to culture and education.

From the social standpoint, the telecommunication network is a determining factor for the construction and operation of basic health centres for local populations. In this connection, it is worth remembering that the International Telecommunication Union and the World Health Organization have concluded an agreement under which they will cooperate to improve the living standards of populations in rural areas and isolated regions whose basic health needs are not yet met, by equipping basic health centres with communication and information technologies.

The two parties has instituted special working relations between their respective secretariats, with a view to:

1. Developing telecommunications in the developing countries, and in particular in the least developed countries;
2. Promoting rural development programmes in those countries, incorporating telecommunication systems and health services;
3. Arranging a telemedicine exhibition at TELECOM 95 as an example of integration of telecommunication technology, medicine and health;
4. Pursuing cooperation between the secretariats of the two organizations in the International Programme on the Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident, the principle of which was adopted at the forty-fourth session of the World Health Assembly. This item deserves to be highlighted, since it offers a perfect example, in terms of the magnitude and importance of the problem, of the particularly crucial role that telecommunications can play for the environment in general and human health in particular.

Role of remote sensing

Remote sensing embraces all the techniques employed to study the Earth’s surface or atmosphere using the properties of electromagnetic waves emitted, reflected or diffused by the different bodies observed.

Space remote sensing consists in using data gathered by earth observation satellites in order to extract physical, biological and human information. The images collected provide an overview of vast areas and, through repeated observations, enable phenomena such as desertification, drought, pollution, land use and urbanization to be monitored.

Africa, whose many problems include desertification, drought and swarms of locusts, could make use of satellite remote sensing and monitoring systems such as SPOT or LANDSAT to combat those phenomena more effectively.

The effectiveness of programmes to combat these troublesome phenomena could be enhanced through the latest telemetry techniques, which allow the distance travelled by anything moving across land or water masses to be measured with great accuracy from a monitoring satellite. This technology could be put to good use in Africa to monitor the advance of deserts, the loss of vegetation, the rise or fall of water levels, by measuring the magnitude of any movements. It could serve as an early warning system, enabling the countries concerned to take appropriate measures in good time to avert impending threats.

In Tunisia, for example, where the National Remote Sensing Centre was set up in 1988, this technique has already made a positive contribution to the improvement of natural resources management.

The projects currently under way at the Centre cover subjects of crucial importance for the country’s development, such as the environment, surface water management and natural disasters.

Environment

Remote sensing makes it possible to map areas which are not easily accessible, such as the marine environment. SPOT and LANDSAT images have been used to map the coast of the Gulf of Gabes and have shown that plant life is dwindling in one of the country’s richest fishing areas. Satellite images are particularly useful for studying desertification, since synoptic, repetitive data are needed in order to study the evolution of such phenomena. Thus, LANDSAT archive images and more recent SPOT images have been used to examine landscape changes in the Menzel Habib region over a ten-year period, enabling the effects of the various plantation projects undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture to be assessed and protective action to be geared more closely to the desertification control plan.

Surface water management

Satellite images may be used to produce, for example, digital terrain models and gradient charts for use in studying catchment areas and mapping erosion-sensitive areas as a first step towards identifying possible sites for retention structures. The first such study, carried out in the Beja region as part of the drought control programme for semi-arid areas, may be extended to other parts of Tunisia.

Natural disasters

The SPOT satellite emergency programming facility was used to provide pictures of the disaster areas following the floods in central and southern Tunisia in January 1990.

By comparing the pictures with others taken in June 1988, the flood damage could be comprehensively mapped.

In 1993, in cooperation with the United Nations Centre for Urgent Environmental Assistance, the Ministry of the Environment and Land-Use Planning simulated a road accident involving a tanker carrying toxic products. Thanks to telecommunications via a satellite link between the Centre in Geneva and the teams on the spot, the simulation was a complete success.

Geographical information systems

Given the complexity of information exchange circuits and the difficulties involved in using conventional paper maps and charts, the Directorate-General of Land-Use Planning is gradually introducing a computerized data exchange system for storing, manipulating, analysing, cross-checking and selecting site-specific information and using it for various mapping purposes.

The system operates at the three main geographical levels, namely:

• the country as a whole;
• the urban centre;
• the commune.

It is based on a geo-coding system with overall coordination based on four elements:

1. a through-section for tasks of general interest;
2. a national information system project for town and country planning;
3. an urban centre data bank project for managing sustainable development;
4. an information system project for municipal management.

The systems provides very reliable information on:

• Land use: uncultivated land, farm land, wet lands and areas under water, reclaimed land, administrative boundaries.
• Networks: waterways, roads, railways, electric power, aqueducts, gas and oil pipelines, communications.
• Sites: governorate and administrative centres, electric power stations, water purification plant, airports, seaports, dams, oil wells and archaeological sites.

Furthermore, it should be pointed out that major climatic or meteorological phenomena and natural disasters occur almost daily throughout the world. With the invaluable support of the World Meteorological Organization, national meteorological and hydrological services have, under the World Climate Programme, undertaken a wide-ranging programme covering various fields:

1. monitoring of the climatic system;
2. evaluation of climate variation and evolution;
3. climatological research.

Real-time monitoring of the planet’s weather and climate has been in operation since 1963, when the World Meteorological Organization set up the World Weather Watch, comprising the world observation system, the world telecommunication system and the world data processing system, allowing free exchange of thousands of observations of the world’s atmosphere and oceans made available by national meteorological and hydrological services and generated daily by automatic or manned land or maritime measuring stations, satellites, buoys scattered around the oceans and aircraft.

The world telecommunication system fulfils three main functions:

• it connects world, regional and national meteorological centres;
• it gathers observation data and disseminates them worldwide;
• it distributes analyses and forecasts prepared by data processing centres.

While the results achieved, in particular by the world telecommunication system, are encouraging, there are still vast areas, especially in Africa, for which not enough systematic samples are taken. Additional efforts are therefore required to make the system more effective.

This highlights the crucial role of telecommunications both for monitoring of the climatic system and in others areas, with a view either to averting the devastating effects of the phenomena involved or to taking appropriated remedial measures in good time.

Conclusion

Clearly, since UNCED, the sectoral view of development as an exclusively commercial operation for immediate profit, disregarding the pressures which man has involuntarily imposed on the environment, has now definitely given was, despite some reluctance, for obvious motives, to the idea of multisectoral sustainable development, combining economic growth and social well-being with environmental protection.

As both a medium and vehicle for various forms of information fostering sustainable development, telecommunications are by definition closely associated with any environment-related activity.

Telecommunications have a vital role to play in environmental protection, and this is obviously something we should all welcome, since not one of us can afford to be indecisive or ignore the urgent need to protect our planet Earth from the threats hanging over it and hand it on to the future generations for whom we hold it in trust. With the level of development they have reached, modern telecommunication technologies, which are in the process of taking us from the industrial economy to the information economy, constitute extremely useful tools with which to take up this challenge.