'ICT can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 16%'

PUNE: Increased use of information and communication technology (ICT) such as video-conferencing and smart building management could cut global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 16.5% by 2020, a study by Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) has said.

The study, SMARTer2020, which management consulting firm The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) did for GeSI, stated that strategically applied ICT solutions can result in savings of $1.9 trillion in gross energy and fuel conservation.

Concerted action by policy-makers to encourage the use of ICT can save 9.1 Gigatonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) of harmful greenhouse gases from being emitted, the study shows.

The report includes detailed national studies of the GHG abatement potential of ICT in seven countries, identifying for each country the best strategies for policy-makers to pursue. For India, emissions growth has been exacerbated by poor transport and energy infrastructure, and heavy reliance on fossil fuels. The study targets the potential for GHG abatement in India from adopting ICT-enabled solutions in its power and transport sectors. The other countries studied were Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The research study identifies GHG abatement potential from ICT-enabled solutions ranging across six sectors of the economy including power, transportation, manufacturing, consumer and service, agriculture, and buildings. India should leverage ICT to make its power and transport sectors more energy efficient, the report has highlighted.

Emission reductions come from virtualization initiatives such as cloud computing and video conferencing, but also through efficiency gains such as optimization of variable-speed motors in manufacturing, smart livestock management to reduce methane emissions, and 32 other ICT-enabled solutions identified in the study.

Luis Neves, GeSI Chairman, said, "The ICT revolution is powering even more innovations than we had imagined, leading to greater potential to cut GHG emissions, and a smaller ICT footprint. Information technology can drive the transition to a low carbon economy, with greater efficiency, and the preservation of our environment."

Some ICT-driven solutions such as smart electricity grids reap benefits at the national level, whilst others like intelligent building management systems can result in energy - and cost - savings for individual households and businesses, the study has pointed out.

The study concludes that the potential for information technology to reduce global carbon emissions has been under-estimated until now, and that the abatement potential of ICT is seven times the size of the ICT sector's own carbon footprint.

Philipp Jung, a San Francisco-based partner at BCG, added,

"This study shows that information and communications technology can achieve even greater savings than we previously thought - as much as $1.9 trillion annually by 2020. The research also shows that country-specific approaches, coordinated within a global framework, are essential to realizing this potential given the diverse country-specific circumstances."

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said, "It is critical that the world captures every last bit of energy efficiency, if we are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep below dangerous rises in temperature. Now we need more and effective government policies that reward such action and penalize delayed responses."