ICTs for Biological Diversity

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening welcome and thank you for joining today’s session on information and communication technologies (ICTs) for Biological Diversity.

ITU is pleased to join the missions of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and Republic of Uganda, to the UN, and the Convention on Biological Diversity to organise this event, and many thanks to the honourable ambassadors Edrees and Odida for your support and joining this event in celebration of tomorrow’s International Biodiversity Day.

The Day’s theme is “We’re part of the solution”, and as the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear, and as we will hear more of in this event, ICTs are contributing in many ways to solving the world’s most pressing challenges such as Covid, but also the more long term challenges such as loss of biodiversity and climate change.

In fact, I believe that we will not be able to address any of these challenges, or achieve any of the UN SDGs, without the help of ICTs.

Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, and 5G are driving an unprecedented digital transformation, and the question we are facing is: how can we can best use this transformation for action on climate change and biodiversity, and how can we do it before it is too late? This is what will be addressed in this session. 

As the UN specialized agency for ICTs, ITU is at the forefront of this digital transformation and has focussed on ICTs for climate change ever since 2007 when we began participating in the climate change conference to raise awareness of the importance of ICTs for adapting and mitigating climate change. 

ITU is the custodian of the Radio Regulations, the world’s only international treaty governing the global use of radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits, and the topic of today’s session closely resonates with our work on remote sensing and Earth observation. Indeed, satellite observations play a significant role in monitoring oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. Some of the presentations today will show how satellite imagery is converted into actional information for biodiversity conservation, in addition to many other interesting ICT solutions and use cases. 

ITU also develops the technical standards which are widely used in these digital technologies, and one of our aims in this work is to reduce the energy consumption, which of course is increasing significantly as the use of ICTs expands.

The UN Secretary-General said recently that 2021 was a “make or break year” to confront the global climate emergency.

2021 kicks off the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration which aims to halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems across the globe. This can only succeed if everyone plays a part. But whilst it is important that we all do our bit to contribute to a healthier planet, it is very important that we work together and exchange best practices, challenges and solutions. Collaboration, cooperation and coordination are the key words!

I am a big proponent of bringing all stakeholders together to pool our resources for the common good. This has driven the work of ITU from its beginning over a century and a half ago, and this multi-stakeholder approach is still at the heart of ITU’s work today, which is evident at the WSIS Forum which is in its final week this week.

Let me thank you again for joining us and especially our excellent speakers.

Thank you.