Green house gas reduction is central to the global sustainability drive. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play a pivotal role in that. By monitoring weather patterns ICT can warn of natural disasters. They can help developing world countries manage their internal resources better. Effective deployment of ICTs helps a county to make the most of their natural resources. They help with distribution algorithms and traffic management. The Whole Leaf company are suppliers of sustainable and biodegradeable disposable plates made form naturally occuring by product of industrial processes. The place for these types of innovative organisations at the summit is clear, they must be copied and spread around the globe.
This week in Cancun, Mexico the world’s largest climate change summit is taking place. It will be the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) with this year’s meeting dominated by reducing carbon emissions. During the conference major mobile manufacturer Ericson will be adding it’s. Their vision of how the ICT sector can support governments will be delivered through top-level presentations, meetings and demonstrations. The conference has promoted all sorts of sustainable products
Ericsson appointed a head of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility 3 years ago. This appointee, Elaine Weidman-Grunewald, will be the lead party in their presence at the conference. As you would suspect she is proposing a greater influence from ICT’s in the coming years.
“While there are not high expectations for reaching consensus on a binding climate change agreement at COP16, we are still confident that for the first time there will be an acknowledgement, from top-level participants, of the role that ICT and transformative solutions can play in addressing climate change,” she says. “I feel this will set the ground for more progressive and proactive forward-thinking climate negotiations during COP16 and beyond.”
The conference is highlighting the importance of ICTs in monitoring climate and weather. The global broadband network combined with colossal computational power means they can share data at immense speeds. This is vital in giving time to react to potential disasters. With the increase in global communications these companies can monitor a mind boggling array of data. Global supplies of water can be managed from central locations. This can make a massive difference to droughts in third world countries. Food crops can be monitored as well. And as the weather, water and crops work the key elements in eco systems we need to live this can make a massive difference to us. They can also keep suppliers and manufacturers in closer communicaitons. THose supplying the whole leaf company with disposable plates will be able to keep stock levels down, reducing overheads, by keeping in close contact.
Bali Action Plan arising from the 2007 conference has implemented some of the more powerful ICT software available. They are integrating information on international green house gas emission and interpreting it with the aforementioned technologies. The PDF Using ICTs to Tackle Climate Change (PDF) was released on Tuesday. It is an extension of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative and of the Bali initiative.
A lot of the things included are common sense, video conferencing to limit business travel, paperless offices, retailers and governments. Using disposable plates sourced from sustainable locations. Its philosophy is that digitalisation of what is currently hard copied and sustainability, like that practiced by the whole leaf with their disposable partyware, should be replicated around the world. It really is something all of us should take on board.