ITU activities associated with climate change

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ITU activities associated with climate change

• ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector
  (ITU-T)
• ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R)

Submission DateJuly 1, 2008
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Highlight of Current Activities (Radio)

• ITU-R studies focus on use of ICTs for
• climate monitoring and weather forecasting
• prediction, detection and mitigation of effects
  of natural disasters
• Space-based active and passive sensors
• track tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, forest
  fires, etc.
• monitor atmospheric composition (GHGs)
• monitor ocean topography, sea temperature, ice
  distribution, etc.
• Many radio services involved
• for remote sensing Met-sat, EESS, Met-aids
• for dissemination of remote sensing data, warning
  of impending natural disasters and subsequent
  relief operations FSS, BSS, BS, FS, MS
• all systems contribute to Global Observing System
  (GOS)
• Quality of data (precision and resolution)
  depends on adequate availability of
  interference-free spectrum
• ITU-R Study Groups (particularly SG 7)
• WRC decisions

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Highlight of Current Activities (Standardization)

• Symposia on ICTs and Climate Change
• Kyoto Symposium, 15-16 April 2008
• London Symposium, 17-18 June 2008
• Review of Recommendations in light of climate
  change
• TSAG in December (liaison statement 30)
  recommended a systematic review of all ITU-T Recs
  to understand their possible implications for
  climate change
• SG15 WP/1 has developed a checklist to assist
  standards developers
• Creation of Focus Group on ICTs and Climate
  Change
• TSAG in July will consider proposals from Japan
  and UK to create a Focus Group to develop a
  common methodology for evaluating the direct and
  indirect impacts of ICTs on GHG emissions
• Research reports (ITU-T Technology Watch Briefing
  Reports)
• ICTs and Climate Change
• Remote collaboration tools
• Telepresence high-performance video-conferencing
• NGN and energy efficiency (forthcoming)

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Strategic Direction (Radio)

• WRC-07 extended spectrum allocations and adopted
  protection criteria for services involved in
  environmental monitoring in general, some of
  which are directly relevant to climate monitoring
• WRC-07 and RA-07 adopted Resolutions on studies
  and actions by Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R)
  relating to the services involved with Earth
  observation and with disaster prediction,
  detection and relief
• Draft agenda of WRC-11 contains several items
  concerning the use and further development of
  radiocommunication systems involved with
  environmental monitoring
• Increasing the awareness of Member States to the
  beneficial use of ICTs in monitoring and reducing
  the impact of climate change
• General move from analogue to digital
  broadcasting will result in a reduction in number
  of transmitters and their power

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Strategic Direction (Standardization)

• Development of a common methodology
• Evaluating direct emissions of greenhouse gases
  (GHG) from use of ICTs (around 2 per cent of
  total according to new GeSI report)
• Evaluating savings in GHG emissions in other
  sectors through carbon abatement (e.g.
  teleconferencing, teleworking, smart buildings
  etc)
• Active participation of mitigating climate change
  (e.g. Ubiquitous Sensor Networks for
  monitor/prompt reaction, ITS etc.)
• NGN and energy efficiency
• Building energy efficiency principles into
  standards development right from the start
• Achieving savings in implementation, eg through
  reduction in number of switching centres
• Developing multiple power modes eg for xDSL
  equipment
• Carrying out a gap analysis of standards work
• Identifying which standards development
  organisations (SDOs) are carrying out what
  activities
• Identifying new candidates for standardization

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Challenges

• There need to be new technical standards. For
  transport, power grids and buildings to become
  more efficient, there must be rules on how, for
  instance, refrigerators should talk to
  electricity meters, and thermostats to heating
  systems. But the internet shows that when common
  standards are agreed on in an industry, great
  things can happen. The technology industry's
  contribution to tackling climate change may come
  from its standards bodies as much as its clever
  gizmos.
• The Economist, June 19 2008

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Next Steps/Actions

• Radiocommunication
• Studies and actions relating to the services
  involved with Earth observation and with disaster
  prediction, detection and relief
• Use and further development of radiocommunication
  systems involved with environmental monitoring
• Telecommunication Standardization
• July 2008 Creation of Focus Group on ICTs and
  Climate Change
• October 2008 World Telecommunication
  Standardization Assembly (WTSA) likely adoption
  of new Resolution guiding standardization work on
  climate change 2009-2012
• ITU-wide
• June 2008 Start of carbon audit with a view to
  making ITU climate-neutral within three years
• November 2008 High-level segment during ITU
  Council on Climate Change
• December 2008 ITU-led side-event at UNFCCC
  climate change conference in Poznan, Poland
• December 2008 ITU-led dynamic coalition workshop
  on Internet and climate change, IGF meeting,
  Hyderabad, India

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For more information

• ITU-wide
• www.itu.int/climate
• Radiocommunication
• www.itu.int/ITU-R/index.asp?categoryinformationr
  linkclimate-changelangen
• Standardization
• www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange
• ITU Background paper on ICTs and Climate Change
• www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/oth/06/0F/T060F000007000
  1PDFE.pdf

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Supplementary Slides
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ICTs at work for monitoring climate change

• WMO World WeatherWatch, incorporating
• Global Observingsystem
• Global Telecom System
• Global Data Processingsystem
• Remote sensing
• Environmental monitoring
• Tsunami early-warning system
• Digital climate forecasting models
• GPS-enabled telemetry
• Ubiquitous sensor networks

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Mitigating the impact

• Directly, e.g., through energy-saving
• Next-Generation Networks (NGN) should reduce GHG
  emissions by 40 relative to separate,
  circuit-switched fixed-line and mobile networks
• Modern radio technologies reduce energy
  consumption by transmitters 10 times
• Indirectly, e.g. ICTs for carbon abatement
• Video-conferencing to reduce business travel in
  Europe by 1 would save 1m CO2 tonnes
• Systemically, e.g., by dematerialisation
• Intelligent Transport Systems could reduce
  vehicle carbon emissions below 130g per km

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Towards a climate neutral ICT sector

• BT has reduced carbon emissions by 60 compared
  since 1996
• ETNO Members reduced carbon emissions by 7 and
  carbon intensity by 14, 2000-03
• NTTs Total Power Revolution saved 124m kWh in
  2007
• Other initiatives
• GeSI, Green Grid, WattWatt, FTTH Council Europe,
  EU codes of conduct, CBI Task Force etc

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Using ICTs for carbon abatement / displacement

• Reducing / substituting for travel
• In 2007, Telstra held 7500 video conferences
  saving 4200 tonnes of CO2
• Flexible work arrangements
• Each one million EU workers could save one
  million tonnes of CO2 annually by telecommuting
• Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)
• In-car systems to assist in eco-driving can
  reduce CO2 emissions by up to 20 per cent
• Dematerialization (replacing atoms with bits)
• ITU-T Recommendations Online save 105 tonnes of
  CO2 annually compared with distribution of paper
  copies

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Emergency telecoms ITU Role

• Telecommunications/ICTs for disaster preparedness
• Tampere Convention
• PP-06 Resolutions 36 and 136 on use ICTs for
  humanitarian assistance
• WRC Resolutions 646, 647, 673 on use of
  radiocommunications for environmental monitoring,
  public protection and disaster relief
• WTDC-06 Resolution 34 on the role of ICTs in
  mitigation of effects of disasters and
  humanitarian assistance
• Partnership Coordination Panel on Telecoms for
  Disaster Relief (PCP-TDR)
• E.164 country code (888) for UN OCHA
• Recommendations E.106 on call priority and X.1303
  on common alerting protocol

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Towards a climate-neutral ITU

• Developing a knowledge base and repository
• Conducting systematic review of ITU
  Recommendations
• Creating a Focus Group on methodologies for
  estimating the GHG emissions from ICTs
• Positioning ITU as a strategic leader
• Developing a Resolution for WTSA-08
• Promoting a global understanding through
  international fora and agreements
• High-level segment at Council 2008
• Achieving a climate-neutral ITU within three
  years
• Conducting carbon audit
• Using remote collaboration tools
• Developing projects under Clean Development
  Mechanism

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ITU Symposia on ICTs and Climate Change

• Kyoto, Japan, 15-16 April, co-organized by MIC
  Japan
• London, UK, 17-18 June, supported and hosted by
  BT
• Outline agenda
• ICTs to the Rescue?
• Corporate responsibility Towards a
  climate-neutral ICT sector
• ICTs for monitoring climate change
• ICTs as a green technology
• Towards a high-bandwidth, low carbon future
• Adapting to climate change
• Webcast using GoToWebinar