BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin spoke to students at the University of Geneva on the critical topic of digital sustainability, particularly on how digital technologies can help response to the global climate emergency.
She tackled the question, if ICTs might actually be part of the climate problem, and what we can do to address it. Solving the climate crisis will involve a major re-set on the way we live and consume, “but, given the will to change our ways, digital technologies can do much to help us protect and preserve our environment, to use our natural resources more wisely, and to tread more softly on this precious planet we call home," she said.
ITU has been championing remote participation in meetings for over ten years. Ms Bogdan-Martin mentioned that while it had previously been difficult to convince others of the power of videoconferencing and online collaboration, in the wake of the COVID pandemic, “we seem to have entered a 'post-Zoom age', where digital is the new normal, and where physical travel for work will probably never return to pre-pandemic levels." Indeed, this is just one example of the benefits of digital to sustainability.
Ms Bogdan-Martin listed numerous ways that digital technologies can contribute to addressing the climate crisis, including by improving energy efficiency and manufacturing processes, help in recycling, improving land and water use, creating more efficient 'smart cities', and environmental monitoring.
At the same time, she noted “Our efforts to harness the immense potential of digital technologies to protect our planet do not negate the fact that ICTs are also a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, nor the fact that rapid technological evolution has led to millions of tons of e-waste piling up in landfills around the world." ICTs consume between 5 and 9 per cent of the world's electricity[1], and the ICT ecosystem accounts for more than 2% of global carbon emissions.
In conclusion, she said, “Digital technologies offer huge potential to minimize our carbon footprint, and better ways of managing our use of technology will help reduce our own industry's footprint, too.
Alone, technology will not solve our climate problem. But in the hands of committed policymakers, it can be a very powerful tool for change, and will be an essential part of our work, in this final, vital, Decade of Action, to meet the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals."
[1] https://www.ft.com/content/b08eb6c2-53d5-11ea-90ad-25e377c0ee1
