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The Role of ICTs in Greening the Economy Policy
Perspectives and Missing Links
Don MacLean, IISD Senior Associate TELECOM 2009
Forum, Geneva, 8 October 2009
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The Policy Challenge

• Global policy frameworks for greening the economy
  have been under development for four decades
• In the last 5 years work has begun on the role of
  ICTs in greening the economy
• Practical linkages between ICTs and sustainable
  development are beginning to emerge
• However, there is little connection between the
  sustainable development and ICT policy
  communities nationally, regionally or globally

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International Institute for Sustainable
Development

• Founded in 1990 in response to Brundtland Report
• Focused on issues related to the intersection of
  the economy and the natural environment
• Programs on natural resources, energy, climate
  change, trade and investment
• Green Economy Initiative (GEI) - major project
  with UNEP on enabling conditions and Big Ideas
  for the green economy
• Recently set up a Global Connectivity program on
  ICTs and sustainable development
• Linkages between ICT and SD policy frameworks and
  mechanisms
• Project on business case for zero-carbon data
  centres

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Overview of the Presentation

• What are the perspectives of the SD policy
  community on the policies needed to green the
  economy and on the role of technologies?
• What are the perspectives of the ICT policy
  community on these issues?
• Where are there bridges and gaps between the
  perspectives of the two communities?
• What issues need to be resolved to help maximize
  the role of ICTs in greening the economy?

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SD perspective Climate change is one of a number
of inter-related challenges in greening the
economy
Source WWF Living Planet Report 2008
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SD perspective A suite of strategies is needed
to achieve long-term sustainability
Source WWF Living Planet Report 2008
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SD Strategy Suite for Greening the Economy

• General strategies
• Getting prices of all goods and services right
  including those provided by the environment
• Supporting green technological innovation
• Incentives and disincentives for businesses and
  consumers
• Voluntary and mandatory standards
• Public procurement and CSR
• Public education and awareness
• Legislation and regulation
• Binding international agreements

• Climate change strategies
• Mitigation of GHG emissions
• Adaptation to consequences of climate change
• Financial mechanisms to support mitigation and
  adaptation in developing countries
• Technology transfer to developing countries

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ICT perspective Initiatives to help green the
economy are currently focused on energy use and
climate change
ICT Lifecycle Direct Effects
ICT Lifecycle Enabling Effects
Source OECD/DSTI/ICCP, Towards Green ICT
Strategies Assessing Policies and Programmes on
ICT and the Environment
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ICT perspective Potential ICT contributions to
reducing GHG emissions in industry, energy,
transportation and buildings
Source Smart 2020, a report by The Climate Group
on behalf of the Global eSustainability
Initiative
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The Role of ICTs in Greening the Economy A
Conceptual Bridge
Impact
Information available
Direct effects
easy to measure
small
Indirect effects
significant
hard to measure
Systemic effects
very big
mainly theories
Source ETNO WWF, 2007, Saving the Climate _at_
the Speed of Light
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Some general questions for SD and ICT
policy-makers

• To what extent should ICT investments be treated
  as investments in green technology by tax
  systems, government programs, green market
  mechanisms, and international agreements - in
  ways similar, for example, to renewable energy,
  CCS, and geo-engineering technologies?
• To what extent would investments in the
  production, application and use of green ICTs be
  made anyway in the absence of green support
  policies and mechanisms - for example to reduce
  costs, improve productivity, enhance
  competitiveness?

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Some specific questions for SD and ICT
policy-makers

• If ICTs are considered green technologies, are
  different support regimes needed for different
  kinds of ICT investments?
• Investments in ICT manufacturing, application and
  use?
• Investments in hardware, software, services, and
  skills?
• Development of smart energy, transportation and
  building infrastructures?
• Greening of supply chains, business processes,
  and organizational structures?
• In a connected, Web 2.0 world, where
  traditional relationships between producers and
  consumers are being transformed, what principles
  should guide the allocation of green ICT credits
  under different support regimes based, for
  example, on taxation, government programs or
  green market mechanisms?

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Some key issues requiring further study

• Measuring the direct, indirect and systemic
  effects of ICTs in helping to green the economy
• Frameworks for dealing with the dual nature of
  ICTs as a growing part of green economy problems
  and an increasingly significant contributor to
  green economy solutions
• Policies for eliminating barriers to
  de-materialization of work, learning, health
  care, leisure and consumption
• Strategies for anticipating and controlling the
  rebound effects and unintended consequences of
  green ICTs
• Opportunities for applying ICT-enabled networked
  governance approaches to sustainable development
  policy-making and implementation

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Thank you for your kind attention. If you would
like further information about IISD and its
Global Connectivity program, please contact
Heather Creech, Director Global Connectivity
Program hcreech_at_iisd.ca