Archived Newsroom • Press Release |
|
International agreement on ‘green ICT’ methodology
ITU addresses conflict minerals,
environmentally-friendly batteries
Geneva, 28 September 2011 – ITU
has underlined its key role in green ICT with a raft of announcements today by
Study Group 5 of its Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T).
A meeting of the group in Seoul, Korea has seen agreement on a
globally-recognized set of methodologies to assess the environmental impact of
information and communications technology (ICT). It also saw agreement to
produce a report on due diligence guidelines for conflict minerals supply, and
to study environmental protection and recycling solutions for batteries for
mobile phones and other ICT devices.
Estimates of how much ICTs can reduce global emissions – and estimates of the
emissions generated by the ICT sector itself – still vary widely, due to the
application of different measurement methodologies. After the problem was raised
by delegates to ITU’s ‘ICTs and Climate Change’ symposium in 2008, ITU took on
the challenge and has pioneered adoption of a new globally-agreed set of
standards.
To ensure consistency between different approaches, the new methodology has been
developed in cooperation with other standardization organizations such as ISO,
IEC,
ETSI and ATIS. The new methodology is also aligned with the Digital Agenda of
the European Commission.
Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General, ITU: “This methodology has been developed
by ITU's industry members. This will be important in ensuring it gains wide
acceptance by the world's ICT industry. An internationally agreed methodology
means estimates of the impact of ICTs on greenhouse gas emissions and energy
consumption will now have much greater credibility. It will also show just how
significant a contribution ICTs can make by reducing global emissions in other
sectors.”
Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission: “I'm pleased that the
industry is taking the task of measuring its own footprint so seriously. And I'm
pleased that the ITU, as a UN agency, is doing such good work facilitating
negotiations, reaching out globally to industry sub-sectors and to other
standardization initiatives.”
New guidelines on conflict minerals
New ITU work on ‘conflict minerals’ will also begin in response to a request
from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). ITU will make a survey of existing
due diligence requirements and guidelines concerning sources of conflict
minerals (in particular, those that are smelted into tin, tantalum, tungsten and
gold), as well as their use in conformity with recognized international treaties
and national legislation, where this exists.
Rare earth minerals are used in consumer electronics products such as mobile
phones, DVD players, video games and computers. Agreement to address this issue
demonstrates the ICT industry’s commitment to sustainability at all levels of
the value chain.
Following on from the success of
ITU’s Universal Charging Solution for mobile devices (Recommendation ITU-T L.1000), the meeting also agreed to study the
benefits and disadvantages of the standardization of batteries for mobile
terminals and other ICT devices, looking at energy efficiency over the battery
life cycle, battery lifetime and exchangeability, safety
and environmental protection, recycling and reuse. This could lead to a
reduction of harmful materials used in batteries and an increased lifespan of
ICT products. Battery manufacturers, device manufacturers, operators and users
will all benefit, say experts.
Ahmed Zeddam, Chairman
of ITU-T Study Group 5: “This has been the most productive and significant
meeting in the long history of Study Group 5. Twelve new important standards
have been agreed, including many critical to methodologies to assess the
environmental impact of ICT and the protection of home networks and next
generation network (NGN) equipment from electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and
environmental effects. The meeting also saw revisions to a key set of standards
on resistibility to overvoltages or overcurrents of telecoms equipment. ITU is
the only organization producing these important global standards.”
For more information, please contact:
Toby Johnson
Senior Communications Officer,
|
Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information
|
About ITU...