Politicians make the policy. But it’s often left to business to implement it. For this reason RioPlus Business is featuring submissions from the private sector across the globe in the lead up to Rio+20.
In this article, blue-chip IT firm Intel, explains how the sector can enable massive global emission cuts.
Recent studies have estimated the ICT industry’s contribution to the world’s energy and carbon footprint to be 2% and rising. A major focus of government policy in recent years has been on reducing the growth of ICT’s direct footprint.
Many of these same studies, however, have highlighted the significant role ICT can play in reducing the footprint of the rest of society – the other 98% – through the energy efficiency gains such technologies can help enable.
The Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) in 2008 produced a report entitled, “Smart 2020: Enabling the Low Carbon Economy in the Information Age” that found that ICT strategies could reduce global carbon emissions by up to 15% in 2020 against a baseline of business as usual.
A 2008 Boston Consulting Group report found that smart technologies have the potential to reduce U.S. CO2 emissions by as much as 22% by 2020 through the concerted application of broadband and ICT in four areas: Smart Power Grids, Smart Roads, Smart Buildings and Travel Substitution. A 22% reduction would mean $240 billion in cost savings or a reduction of 36% in imported oil. Similar reports have been completed for China and India through the Digital Energy Solutions [...]
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