Using ICT for adaption
rather than mitigation to climate
change: Bill St-Arnaud, St-Arnaud & Walker
Associates
To date most efforts addressing Climate
Change have been focused on mitigation
strategies such as increasing energy
efficiency and/or using renewable energy
sources. Even where there is political
and public acceptance for Climate Change
a number of economists argue that the
public will never be prepared to make
the huge sacrifices and substantial
investments to avoid the worst possible
outcomes. As such many scientists and
policy makers are starting to argue we
need to seriously think the unthinkable:
we are unlikely to undertake any
meaningful reduction in GHG emission and
consequently we must prepare ourselves
and society as a whole to adapt to a
much warmer planet. ICT industry
therefore must undertake to develop
technologies to be survivable an
environment of extreme weather and also
help other sectors adapt to a much more
warmer planet with the inevitable
destruction of agricultural lands and
coastal flooding.
Can ICT Beat CO2?: Daniel Gagne, Bell Canada
We know that ICT has the potential to
play a central and active role in the
challenge against climate change by
enabling carbon reduction from
dematerialization, virtualization,
transport substitution, smarter use of
resources and in many other ways.
However, the ICT sector itself has its
own challenges optimizing the energy
efficiency of its systems, products and
services, while minimizing their social
and environmental impacts throughout
their life cycle.
To unleash the full potential of ICT in
bringing us closer to a low carbon
economy, we first need to address both
ends of this equation. To begin with, it
is important that we create the
conditions for a smarter use of ICT
solutions, while at the same time
relentlessly striving to limit undesired
rebound effects. This presentation will
provide concrete examples of how the
above challenges can be achieved.
Greenpeace’s Cool IT Leaderboard, Renee Blanchard, Greenpeace
Just as the power of the internet has
revolutionised our communication by
allowing users to provide content such
as video, music and text material,
generating new producers, journalists
and authors, IT energy-related ‘smart’
solutions have the ability to put
consumers in command of their
electricity use and pave the way for
dramatic improvements in energy
efficiency and use of renewable energy.
Greenpeace’s own [E]nergy Revolution
blueprint, which outlines a sustainable
pathway for a transition to having 95%
of global energy needs met by renewable
energy by 2050, a significant disruption
of the centralised dirty energy business
model by ICT technologies is essential
to achieving this goal.
Greenpeace’s CoolIT Leaderboard analyses
21 leading ICT companies on three
categories: IT Climate Solutions, IT
Energy Impact, and Political Advocacy.
This year’s Leaderboard, released in
February, saw top points go to Google,
Cisco, Ericsson, and Fujitsu. Also,
Japanese telecommunications company
Softbank makes an impressive debut on
the Cool IT Leaderboard, most notably
for its tremendous leadership in clean
energy policy advocacy in post-Fukushima
Japan.
Focus on ICT Goods, Networks and services: Recommendation L.1410; Short overview on developments related to ICT projects and ICT in cities: Jean Manuel Canet, France
Telecom/Orange
In the frame of the ITU-T Study Group
"Environment and Climate Change", the
Question on methodologies develops 6
Recommendations to assess the
environmental impacts of the ICT sector.
3 Recommendations have been approved up
to date and are now published. This
speech will focus on the recently
published Recommendation L.1410. L.1410
provides framework and guidance on the
Life Cycle Assessment of ICT Goods,
Networks and Services (Part I) and also
on the comparative analysis between an
ICT product system and a reference
product system (Part II). A brief
introduction on two other methodologies
currently under development, to assess
the impacts of ICT projects and ICT in
cities, will also be provided.
Implications of Cloud
Computing to Our Environment: Monique Morrow, Convener of the
Joint Coordination Activity on Cloud
Computing/ Cisco
What are the ICT factors specific to
cloud computing that may impact the
environment?
This question will be explored as to
stimulate further discussion.
It should be noted that Cisco is focused
not only in reducing the energy and
overall environmental impact of ICTS
that account for 2% of global GHG
emissions, but also in the development
and implementation of solutions that
would improve efficiency in
energy-intensive sectors for example:
Smart Grid, Smart Transportation,
TelePresence, etc. s to reduce reduce
carbon emissions by 15% by 2020 (per
GeSI report).
Green Data Centers - Recommendation
ITU-T L. 1300: Brief Overview: Paolo Gemma, Huawei
The presentation gives an overview of
new recommendation L.1300 “Best
practices for green data centers”
approved by ITU last November. The
document covers aspect and give
suggestions on practices that can reduce
the impact of a data center including:
cooling solution management, selection
of power equipment, selection of ICT
equipment.
Also an overview of future activity on
green data center in SG5 will be
reported.
Greening ICT – Towards
Zero-Carbon Networking: Pierre Boucher, Ericsson
Our society is progressing towards a new
technological inflection point where we
will be connecting "things" in addition
to people and places. This networked
society willbe more sustainable but will
pose new challenges on ICT services and
network infrastructure. We have been
using Life Cycle Analysis to look at the
impact on CO2 reduction of certain of
these services, and preliminary results
show that it can be significant. We
further explore the impact of these new
services on ICT data center and present
a research project where network
infrastructure resources can be used
dynamically based on a follow the sun,
follow the wind concept.
Main Goals and Activities of
the ETNO Energy Task Force:
Gianluca Griffa, Chairman of the Energy
Efficiency Working Group, ETNO
The ETNO (European Telecommunication
Network Operator) CORE Energy Task Force
was created in 2004 by the signatories
of the ETNO Sustainability Charter.
The Group is currently under the ETNO
Sustainability WG and is focused on the
following goals:
decrease further the energy
consumption of the ICT branch
motivate society to make use of the
existing potential of Green ICT
develop new solutions to increase the
energy saving impact of ICT
The Group mainly develops benchmark
activities and shares knowledge/best
practices among its participants.
The presentation will give a brief
overview of the main activities jointly
performed by the ETNO ETF Group together
with some examples of relevant energy
saving projects performed by single
members.
IT and Sustainable Cities:
the Smarter Cities lens: Jean-Francois Barsoum, IBM
Jean-François will walk through several
examples of how cities have started
achieving measureable improvements in
their sustainability metrics using the
smarter cities approach, in water
management, transportation management,
or other aspect of environmental
management. In addition, important
lessons will be drawn from those
projects; those who jump in without
preparing carefully and bound to fall
into well understood traps. Learn to
spot and avoid them!
Intelligent Sustainability:
ICT's Potential Contribution: Stephen Harper, Intel
Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) consume resources,
including energy and water, throughout
the lifecycle from manufacturing through
use to end-use disposal. Government
regulations globally have focused on
reducing those negative lifecycle
impacts. Recently, however, data have
accumulated documenting that ICTs can
drive much larger positive lifecycle
impacts via their use in other sectors
to improve energy efficiency and water
and other resource management. The
Japanese refer to these impacts as
“Green by ICT” as distinguished from
“Green of ICT”, which focuses on
improving the direct footprint of ICT
devices. This presentation presents the
data, provides specific examples of ICT
applications that illustrate Green by
ICT, and explores the critical role of
enabling government policies in helping
to realize the full solutions potential
of ICT in both the energy and water
arenas.
Defining the Sustainability of
Cities: Keiichiro Nakanishi, Hitachi
How do you decide whether a city is
sustainable? Although a number of
concepts and definitions are suggested
by diverse public and private entities,
the metrics to evaluate the
sustainability, smartness or
eco-friendliness of cities has not yet
standardized.
In 2012, as a reaction to this
situation, ISO established a new
subcommittee (TC268 SC1 "Smart Urban
Infrastructure Metrics") which develops
standards on metrics to assess the
performance of urban infrastructures.
In this session, as one of the leading
participants of ISO TC268 SC1, Keiichiro
NAKANISHI introduces several existing
city indicators and explains the
background of the establishment of the
subcommittee. He will also discuss its
prospective activities.
A Case Study on the Assessment of
Environmental Impact of ICT Services in Korea, Hyosik Min, SK Telecom
In order to measure the positive
environmental impacts of ICT, we adopted
the Part 2 of ITU-T L.1410 to 14
selected ICT services; Real-time
Navigation, Bus Information System,
e-Logistics, Telepresence, Home Energy
Management System, Smart Grid,
e-Commerce, e-Government, e-Civil
Service, e-Health, Digital Contents (CD,
books), Smart Motor (Industrial) and
e-Learning. We developed its reference
product system for each target ICT
service and compared them by
demonstrating expected enabling effects
of ICT services. We estimated that the
domestic GHG abatement by adopting ICT
will be 5 times more than its direct
footprint. Also, by prioritizing each
enabler in terms of financial
feasibility and ease of implementation,
we concluded that 7 enablers including
Real-time Navigation and e-Commerce had
the highest potential for GHG reduction.
Work of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel Affecting Environment: David Su, NIST, USA
The National Institute of Standards and
Technology initiated the SGIP to
coordinate development of standards for
the smart grid. The SGIP has over 760
member organizations world wide,
including many international standards
developing organizations such as the
ITU. This talk will introduce some of
its focus areas that will reduce the
environmental impacts, such in
integration of power generation using
renewable resources, and the Green
Button initiative.
Strategy and Experience of Network Operator on Smart Grid: Hyungsoo Kim, Smart Grid Department,
KT
This talk will introduce that Smart Grid
is expecting a future growth engine for
network operators. It can be achieved
through 3 types of convergence with ICT
industry ; network, service and
terminal. Based on 2 field trials (Jeju
and K-MEG), KT has realized its
technologies and businesses.
Thoughts on Electronics
Reuse and Recycling: Sean Nicholson, Microsoft
Learn about refurbisher programs that
collect and give a second life to used
electronics, along with opinions on
current issues and possible solutions to
not only increase e-waste collection and
processing but also create economic
opportunities and possible ways to
reduce the explosive growth of hazardous
e-waste.
Earth Observations:
Foundational for Understanding and
Predicting Environmental Change: Jim Abraham, DG Monitoring
Meteorological Service of Canada
The Meteorological Service of Canada is
responsible for weather, water and
climate services in Canada. Seven Storm
Prediction Centres are responsible for
the delivery of mission critical severe
weather warnings, which are prepared and
disseminated for protection of life and
property. These services depend on an
important earth observation system.
Being such a large country, Canada is
reliant on a variety of remote sensing
and automated observing platforms to
monitor the state of the atmosphere,
hydrosphere and cryosphere.
ICTs to Monitor the Climate: Edva Altemar, Conatel, Haiti
• Climate change
• Biogeography of haitian republic
• The haitian climate change
• Environment management
• ICT to monitoring climate : What we
use in Haiti
• Recommendations
The Use of Next-Generation Weather Technologies to Manage the Impact of our Changing Climate: James Anderson, Earth Networks
Throughout the world, climate change and
severe weather are impacting people and
societies at unprecedented scales. Earth
Networks is a global technology leader
with solutions that address the most
pressing weather-related challenges
facing communities worldwide. Earth
Networks operates the largest global
weather information network to provide
early warning of severe weather events
and cost-effective radar and forecasting
tools for monitoring of severe weather
and heavy precipitation events.
Since the 1970s, 95% of fatalities from
extreme weather have occurred in the
developing world, and overall, $200B is
lost annually due to severe weather.
Amazingly, an estimated 6.5 billion
people in the world lack access to
quality weather information and
warnings. Yet there are 6 billion mobile
phones in use. Earth Networks has the
technology to cost-effectively provide
people with finger-tip access to
real-time weather information and
warnings delivered through mobile SMS,
smartphone, email, and desktop messaging
services for improved public safety as
well as agricultural operations.
This presentation will highlight new
technologies enabling advanced weather
alerting and a cost effective-radar
alternative delivering improved early
warning of severe weather and
precipitation events. Discussion will
also be provided on the use of weather
information in agricultural operations
for improved productivity and crop
yield.
Undersea Technology & Tools: Maurice Kordahi, TESubcom
Several custom undersea tools and
technologies are being introduced to
provide interconnectivity between
different applications and users
throughout the world. Trade-offs and
risks are some of the issues highlighted
here.
Subsea Cables and Data from
the Deep Ocean: Peter Phibbs, Chief Engineer,
NEPTUNE Canada
The global nature of today’s Information
Communications Technology is made
possible by the transmission of data
through fibre optic cables. To bridge
the oceans, the fibre optic cables are
run on the seabed. These subsea fibre
optic cables represent man’s only long
term presence in the deep ocean.
The world’s oceans cover over 70% of the
planet’s surface. Any attempt to
understand long term planetary processes
will be unsuccessful unless they include
consideration of not just the surface,
but the depths of these oceans.
Many countries around the world have
identified the need for better
understanding of ocean processes, and
have started to build cabled ocean
observatories to begin to collect time
series data from some parts of the deep
ocean. These efforts were led by
JAMSTEC, whose latest observatory,
DONET, is now on line. Japan has now
been joined by other countries including
Canada (NEPTUNE Canada and VENUS), the
Europeans (EMSO) and Taiwan (MACHO), and
will soon be joined by USA (RSN of the
OOI).
This presentation will consider the
opportunities offered by subsea
telecommunications technology to enhance
mankind’s understanding of the deep
ocean, and consider some of the issues
related to support of instruments on
dedicated networks and on third party
telecommunications systems.
Perspectives from the UN Climate Change Conference 2011 - Durban, South Africa: Kevin Grose, UNFCCC
The video presentation will highlight
key messages and examples from the 1
December 2011 side event in Durban
organized by the Climate Change
Secretariat on “Climate change
adaptation and ICTs - enabling
innovative strategies.
The video draws on the work and research
of the University of Manchester, Tata
Consultancy Services, Microsoft
Corporation and the International
Telecommunications Union that provide
concrete examples of how ICTs are being
used at national, sectoral and community
levels in developing countries as part
of larger integrated approaches. Tata
Consultancy Services provides details of
its “mKRISHI” programme that provides
farmers with practical information using
mobile phones, while Microsoft focuses
on how to reduce water and energy
consumption through “Eye on the Earth”
cloud computing among other examples.
ITU is taking forward a pilot project in
Ghana that brings together government
ministries and private sector partners.
Speakers from the government of South
Africa and ITU address policy concerns,
while the Climate Change Secretariat
focuses on current opportunities for
action on adaptation with the UNFCCC
process.
ICTs and Climate Change
Adaptation: The e-Resilience Approach: Angelica Valeria Ospina, Centre for
Development Informatics, University of
Manchester
Amidst the unmistakable signs of a changing global climate, the challenges
faced by developing countries to overcome poverty and marginalisation are
rapidly intensifying. The magnitude and uncertainty of climate change-related
impacts pose the need for innovative responses and increased resilience of
developing countries, in order to better withstand, recover from, and adapt to
the changing conditions.
Within this context, the role of information and communication technologies
(ICTs) is starting to emerge and to shed light on new approaches to respond,
prepare for, and adapt to climate change impacts. Emerging experiences from
vulnerable communities in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean
suggest that the use of applications such as mobile phones and the Internet
can contribute to climate change responses, including the strengthening of
local livelihoods, access to relevant information and networking opportunities,
training and awareness raising, among others.
The objective of this presentation is to explore and foster discussion about the
role of ICTs towards climate change adaptation, particularly through their
contribution to building resilience to climate change.
The concept of ‘e-resilience’ will be introduced as an emerging area of study
to understand how innovative ICT tools and approaches can strengthen the
response of vulnerable systems to the challenges and uncertainty posed by
climate change. The presentation will also identify some of the key
opportunities and challenges for these tools in enhancing community and
national resilience, as well as emerging areas of inquiry in this field.
As research at the intersection of ICTs, climate change and development
continues to evolve, the analysis of ‘e-resilience’ can provide us with valuable
insights into the role of ICT tools to strengthen the adaptive capacities and
livelihood strategies of developing contexts facing climatic uncertainty.
The presentation will be based on the findings of the ‘Climate Change,
Innovation and ICTs’ project, a two-year applied research initiative to generate
practice-based evidence on the potential of ICTs to respond to the challenges
posed by climate change in developing countries, led by the Centre for
Development Informatics at the University of Manchester with the support of
Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
ITU-Development Sector Study Question on Emergency Communications: Kelly O’Keefe, Chair of the ITU-D
Study Group on Emergency Communications
This presentation will provide an
overview of the work of the
ITU-Development Sector Study Question on
Emergency Communications, focusing on
published reports, case studies, a
planned online toolkit, and
opportunities for governments and
private sector members to become
involved in the work of the group.
A Multi-stakeholder Approach to Emergency Telecommunications: Patrick Masambu, International
Telecommunications Satellite
Organization (ITSO)
The 150 country member organization,
International Telecommunications
Satellite Organization (ITSO), which was
originally established in 1964 under the
acronym “INTELSAT”, underwent a major
restructuring exercise in 2001in order
to guarantee long term sustainability.
The result of the process was the
establishment of the private company
“Intelsat” , whilst ITSO remained as the
intergovernmental entity with a revised
mandate.
The unique role that ITSO has been
placed in following the above outcome,
has been leveraged to establish an
example of a multi-stakeholder
partnership between international
organizations, governments and the
private sector (ITU, ITSO and Intelsat)
that can be very effectively used to
respond to emergency telecommunication
needs through use of satellite
technology. This presentation is a brief
description of what has been done to
make this multi-stakeholder involvement
possible.
Satellite Communications for Disaster Preparedness, Early Warning and Response: Donna Bethea-Murphy, Iridium
Communications
Given their suitability and reliability,
satellite communications applications
are considered critical tools for
governments and relief organizations
when responding to a disaster. In
addition to uses for disaster response,
satellite-enabled applications are
currently used in support of
environmental monitoring systems that
provide advance warnings of any danger.
For example, in the wake of the March
2011 earthquake in Japan, a U.S. tsunami
warning network was able to provide
detailed information on the ensuing
tsunami by relaying sea level data to
warning centers using the Iridium
constellation.
This presentation will provide an
overview of satellite communications for
disaster preparedness, early warning and
response including a review of new
applications and consideration of best
practices in deployment of satellite
communications for disasters.
Implementation of the
Emergency Alert System in Chile: Eduardo Galvez, Subtel
The earthquake (8.8 Richter) and tsunami
on the morning of February 27, 2010
deeply impacted the lives of Chileans
people. Chile is a seismic country and
surrounded by coasts. For this reason,
the country must be prepared for new
emergencies.
In this matter, specifically
communications and telecommunications
services of voice, data and text
messaging play a fundamental role.
Although, communication failures on
February 27, 2010 were evident, provided
an opportunity to propose and implement
structural changes to the procedures
background and architecture of
telecommunications to meet emergencies.
Under this situation, in the first half
of 2010, the Undersecretary of
Telecommunications signed with mobile
network operators an agreement to
broadcast freely by the public, the
emergency alert messages, which will be
generated by the National Emergency
Office (ONEMI) to alert the population
of a specific geographic area affected
by states of disaster.
This implies the implementation of a
free mass messaging for emergency alerts
georeferenced System (Emergency Alert
messages) using the functionality of
mobile networks known as "cell broadcast
service / system" (CBS). For the
implementation of this system are
necessary technological upgrades
(software and hardware) in mobile
networks, to capture and broadcast the
message put cellular terminals to
receive and deploy these communications.
This initiative was incorporated by Law
No. 20,478, on Recovery and Continuity
Conditions Reviews Public
Telecommunications System dated december
10, 2010.
After a public licitations process, the
Undersecretary of Telecommunications,
assigned the licitation to the GLOBAL
SYSTEMS CHILE SA company as the highest
score obtained by the evaluation
criteria defined in the respective
licitation.
The company assigned, submitted in his
offer as manufacturer and system
integrator a eVIGILO company, entity
with significant experience in Israel
and European countries regarding the
implementation of messaging systems
under emergency conditions.
The Emergency Alert System in Chile will
allow:
• Alert opportunely to the population
about emergency situations.
• Have a mass alert system that is not
affected by the congestion of public
networks.
• Send alert messages to specific
geographic areas.
• Generate messages centralized under
the responsibility clearly defined by
the Chile State.
• Process the events, signals or warning
information.
• Develop various alert messages to the
affected area.
• Automatically validate the alert
messages (source, content, destination).
• Send messages to mobile networks of
all technologies (2G, 3G, 4G).
• Interconnection with mobile networks
for delivery of the message and the
information associated with of warnings.
• Inform the population and save lives.
The System will selecting the geographic
area affected, a group of people and /
or an organization who direct the
message, or other selection options,
with the goal of sending messages and
specific messages in a specific areas.
Currently, the system is integrated with
the five mobile operators and
verification phase forward messaging
with each of them. In parallel, the
Undersecretary of Telecommunications
with the mobile operators are
compatibility testing process of mobile
terminals that support messaging system.
Additionally the integration of these
systems with mobile phone networks, is
considered his adaptation - interface
with other services such as analog
television, digital television, radios,
sirens, signs on roads, social networks.
Undoubtedly, this is a significant step
for Chile with respect to the
implementation of mechanisms and
centralized procedures, which involve a
joint public - private partnership
designed to communicate in a timely and
clear to the people the basic
instructions for protection of life and
the coordination of public and private
institutions should intervene in the
management of aid in future emergencies,
whatever their type.
Other initiatives to deal emergency
situations in Chile are:
• Definition of Critical Infrastructure
Telecommunications (fixed telephony,
mobile telephony and internet).
• Expanding the capacity of sending text
messages (SMS)
• Improve HF communications network.
• National Emergency Network Design.
• New regulatory standards associated
with emergency management.
