[CAnet - news] ICT and Global Warming - Opportunities for Innovation and Economic Growth

For more information on this item please visit my blog at 
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/ or http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com
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 [A draft of my paper on how Information, Computation and Telecommunication
(ICT) solutions to mitigate against Global Warming can create opportunities
for innovation and economic growth is now available. All comments,
suggestions, changes and criticisms most welcome--BSA]

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgbgjrct_2767dxpbdvcf

There has been considerable interest recently about how ICT (Information,
Computer, Telecommunications) technologies and how they can address the
global challenges of protecting the environment and supporting sustainable
development. The subject of ICT and the environment covers a wide range of
fields such as sustainable development, using ICT to improve practices in
agriculture and forestry, monitoring atmospheric and water pollution, waste
management and recycling, improved energy efficiency and, of course ICT as a
source of toxic waste in its own right. Although these are all important
areas of scientific research and public policy the intent of this report is
not to address the various areas on how ICT can address global environment
challenges such as the emission of  Greenhouse Gases (GHG). Instead the
purpose of this brief report is to focus on the opportunities for innovation
and economic growth that might arise through the use of ICT to address the
challenge of GHG emissions. 


To date most approaches for using ICT to reduce GHG emissions have focused
on "sackcloth and ashes" approach of reducing energy consumption or emission
abatement techniques such as tele-commuting, tele-presence, etc.  Various
industry consortia and government programs have been set up to promote
innovation in these areas. Although these may be worthwhile endeavours, they
have been in existence for some time and so far, have made little progress
in reducing energy consumption or GHG emissions. Rather than focusing on
energy efficiency or abatement techniques this document will hopefully
demonstrate that ICT can provide much greater opportunities for innovation
and economic growth through a strategy of "zero carbon" for the ICT industry
itself and using ICT e-products and e-services as a reward mechanism to
encourage consumers and businesses to reduce their overall carbon footprint
including heating, transportation, etc 

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blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/


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