Prepared Q&A with Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, ITU Secretary General

Climate change is clearly a key theme at this year’s ITU Telecom Asia 2008 show being held this week in Bangkok, Thailand. Here is what Dr Hamadoun I. Toure, secretary general of the ITU says about the UN organisation’s work on the subject in a prepared Q&A to the media.

Question: Climate change is a relatively new item on ITU’s work plan…

Dr Hamadoun I. Toure:

“Yes, but in fact we’ve already been very active here for a number of years, through the development of technologies for environmental monitoring, through early warning systems to help communities mitigate the effects of the growing number of natural disasters provoked by global warming, and through technologies designed to minimize human impact on our environment.

I believe we can go much, much further, by helping industries across all sectors reduce their carbon footprint. Sure, as products that consume energy – through both their manufacture and their use – ICTs are part of the problem, accounting for around three per cent of global CO2 emissions. But they can also be a huge part of the solution – for example, by reducing the need for paper, by automatically switching both themselves and other electrical appliances to ‘sleep’ mode to cut energy consumption, by reducing the need for travel, and by more efficiently managing energy needs in our homes or in our cars.

Following two international Symposia on ICTs and Climate Change held earlier this year, the important role of ICTs in mitigating climate change was addressed at the G8 meeting in Lake Toya in July.

ITU will continue to proactively work towards even better technological solutions to reducing our carbon footprint, through standardization efforts in areas like NGN, where new technologies can dramatically reduce the power consumption of network infrastructure, and through special areas of focus like the Networked Home and the Networked Car. We’re also stepping up our work in the area of emergency communications, to help communities deal with the often catastrophic effects of a shift in climate patterns.”

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1. Global businesses are ill prepared for climate change risks
2. ITU sets up new standards group for climate change
3. ITU ponders systematic standards review in light of climate change
4. BT talks green

Tags: Climate change, Dr Hamadoun I. Toure, Green ICT, International Telecommunications Union, secretary general of the ITU

Category: Climate change