Chapter 28

ITU: Moving Towards a Global Policy

Framework on ICTs and Climate Change

Catherine Candano

Abstract Voluntary initiatives undertaken across private and public sectors have
enabled innovative national and regional ICT practices, however fragmented and
localized in scope these collaborations are. Policy proposals for an enabling envi-
ronment have emerged from the voluntary actors, highlighting the need for a
framework to spur adoption of carbon-friendly ICT practices. By exploring the
links between ICT and climate change, this paper intends to highlight the policy
gaps that exist to enable a wider use of ICT for climate change solutions. The study
explores the potentials of climate change mainstreaming into global ICT policy
platforms at the ITU, as it moves towards a framework regarding ICTs and climate
change. A combination of supply and demand side policy analysis identified the
forces that present both risk and opportunity for ITU to become a more meaningful
player in this context. It was identified that ITU can enable greater coherence and
catalysis among stakeholders and policy areas given the potentials across climate
change mitigation, monitoring, and adaptation.

Keywords Adaptation
Climate change
Global policy
ICT
ITU
Mitigation

Monitoring

Introduction

Two years ago, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called climate
change “the defining challenge of our time” in an address at the UN Climate
Conference in Bali (UN 2007). Attention on policy solutions has been mainly
focused on the global climate change agreement, the United Nations Framework

C. Candano
Communication and New Media Programme, National University of Singapore, AS6, Level 3,
11 Computing Drive, Singapore, Singapore

W.L. Filho (ed.), The Economic, Social and Political Elements of Climate Change, 439
Climate Change Management, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-14776-0_28,
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
440 C. Candano

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997 to

address global warming. Policy tools prescribed within it focus on the greatest
contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly deforestation, transport-
based emissions, and unsustainable energy sources such as fossil fuels: emissions
cap-and-trade, the Clean Development Mechanism as well as Joint Implementation
programmes (UNFCCC 2007). Forest management and funds for climate-vulnera-
ble developing countries become additional policy tools (UNFCCC 2008).
A promising area not directly addressed within the Kyoto Protocol framework is
the linkage with ICTs. As ICTs inherently use energy to make and use, the sector in
itself constitutes an industry which emits greenhouse gases – covering technology
products from PCs to mobile phones, and associated infrastructure. The ICT
sector’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is the same industry-
level emission estimate for the global airline transport industry (Gartner 2007).
Considering the ICT sector produces between 2% and 3% global greenhouse gases
emissions annually, it is usually an overlooked sector as a driver for climate security
within policy debates. The breakdown of industry-level emissions consists of the
use of computing technologies and telecommunications, which contribute approxi-
mately 75% of industry emissions (Fig. 28.1). Fixed-line, mobile, and LAN/office
telecommunications contribute to a third of industry emissions while personal
computing contributes to 40%.
In addition to a sector-specific perspective is a cross-sector consideration of ICT
and climate change. ICT applications are pervasive in the economy as enabling
technologies, having impact on society and development consequences. This view-
point links ICT and climate change in a more integrated manner, proposing greater
potential contributions to address the issue. Reports indicate opportunities exist for
climate change mitigation when ICT is applied to reduce emissions in other higher-
emitting industry sectors (energy, transportation and buildings). Estimates indicate

Fig 28.1 ICT contributions to climate change emissions (ITU 2008a, b, c)

28 ITU: Moving Towards a Global Policy Framework on ICTs and Climate Change 441

such ICT use could reduce global emissions by 15–40% depending on estimation
methods (The Climate Group et al. 2008). Potential to reduce emissions, and drive
energy-related cost savings, have driven voluntary efforts in the literature among
private sector actors within ICT. These voluntary efforts in developed countries
such as in Europe, North America, or Japan were undertaken often in relation to
sustainability financial reporting and have garnered attention in terms of cases’
quantifiable impact. Policy proposals for an enabling environment have emerged
from the voluntary actors, highlighting the need for macro-level guidance and
governance to spur adoption of carbon-friendly ICT practices.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is the only global platform
that brings together state and industry actors on ICT issues of common concern, in a
domain where often public efforts to regulate ICT venture on a different roadmap
from the private sector. Its recommendations on standards for competing technol-
ogies often guide national regulators and industry players on compatibility; it has a
high rate of participation among its member countries covering both developed and
developed countries among other historical strengths. In 2007, when ITU was
tasked by the United Nations Secretary General to lead ICT for climate change
efforts within the UN system, ITU was expected to respond and galvanize its
organization accordingly. This implied that no longer did climate change lie mainly
within the area of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), the UN body founded by the two specialized agencies the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Meteorological Organization
(WMO), to facilitate a global treaty on climate change. Rather, climate change was
a responsibility of every UN agency under a unified platform, in line with the
current One UN reform programme (UN Acting on Climate Change 2008). As such,
this paper intended to explore the role of the International Telecommunications
Union (ITU), the main UN agency focused on ICTs, as it moves towards efforts on a
global policy towards ICTs and climate change. The policy gaps in the proliferation
of ICT for climate change solutions are identified herein as the need for coherence
among actors and catalysis among policy areas.

ICT’s Potential to Address the Issue of Climate Change

The literature considers the interplay between ICTs and climate change mainly in
the context of impacts. ICTs create both positive and negative impacts on environ-
ment when applied within ICT fields and across other sectors (Houghton 2008).
Potentially positive impacts can come from: the dematerialization and online
delivery of physical goods; the reduction in the need for travel upon applying
digital office technologies; the use of energy modelling, monitoring, and manage-
ment applications for energy efficiency in production and use. On the other hand,
potentially negative impacts can come from: the production and distribution of ICT
equipment; energy consumption in use (directly through application and indirectly
442 C. Candano

for the cooling) of machines; the short product life-cycles (planned obsolescence)
of ICT, among others.
Beyond the cost–benefit analysis of ICTs on climate change in terms of only its
positive and negative impacts, it is helpful to consider a more nuanced view of ICT
impacts, to ascertain its implications for action and policy. The literature identifies
three distinctive views of ICTs in terms of its scope and pervasiveness of applica-
tion and inherent properties of the technology (Fig. 28.2).
The three levels of ICT impacts relate to the creation and use of ICTs across
different sectors in society, and both the positive and negative consequences of its
applications to the natural environment. These views of ICT impacts move from
industry-specific impacts (namely the direct effect or first order impact), to its
presence outside the ICT industry (namely the indirect effect or second order
impact), and to its wider and broader impacts when present across more sectors
in society (namely the systemic effect or third order impact).
First order or direct effects of ICT on climate change are impacts and opportu-
nities created by the physical existence and application of ICT and the
manufacturing processes involved, such as pollution, energy to manufacture
them, disposal, etc. This includes the direct use of ICT by the industry sector itself.
Second order or indirect effects cover impacts and opportunities created by the
ongoing use and application of ICT outside of the ICT manufacturing sector (other
industries, government, academia, society). One may consider this impact in terms
of ICT power-use and savings in these sectors. One recent report estimated that
indirect effects might account for 80% of ICT-generated GHG emissions. Third
order or systemic effects of ICT are those impacts created by aggregated effects of
mass ICT-use and application over the medium and long term, therefore enabling
changes in social behaviours to be felt through scaled-up adoption of such technol-
ogies. An example of such scaled-adoption would be in the case of a general
acceptance emerging, regarding telecommunications substitution effects for physi-
cal travel by organizations. The larger-scale impact of a hypothetical widespread
preference for telecommuting across sectors may therefore lead to a marked decline
in the use of transportation systems (and the carbon emissions implied by transport
use). Large-scale choices made about how to use ICTs to change structures and
behaviours may play a role towards a global response to the challenge of climate
change (IPTS 2007).

Fig. 28.2 Three distinct ICT effects on climate change (Adapted from IPTS 2007)
28 ITU: Moving Towards a Global Policy Framework on ICTs and Climate Change 443

ICT intervention to address climate change is mainly related to three focus areas
associated in climate change solutions: climate change mitigation, monitoring, and
adaptation. Mitigating climate change refers to areas of action through the mitiga-
tion of the cause of climate change, the carbon emissions, by various sectors in
society. Monitoring climate change refers to areas of action undertaken in order to
understand the extent of the issue and its related impacts on the physical environ-
ment and human development. Finally, adaptation to climate change refers to areas
of action aimed at reducing human vulnerabilities to climate change effects. The
three levels of ICT impacts are dispersed across the three climate change policy
areas. Richard Heeks (2009) summarized the literature describing the intermediary
effects of ICTs on the climate change causes and effects adapted in the succeeding
framework (Fig. 28.3).
Mitigation of climate change through ICT applications in consumption and
production processes would include examples such as dematerialization (replacing
atoms with bits) and flexible work arrangements via telecommuting. Some case
results include: ITU Recommendations Online has saved 105 tonnes of CO2
annually compared with distribution of paper copies; Telstra held 7,500 video
conferences, saving 4,200 tonnes of CO2; video-conferencing to reduce business
travel in Europe by 1% would save 1 m tonnes of CO2 annually (Climate Risk
report for Telstra 2007; ETNO/WWF report, Toyota, ITU 2008a, b, c). The use of
smart grids and smart building designs could manage energy efficiencies remotely
and in an automated manner, also enabling mitigation of climate change through
ICT applications on energy generation, distribution, and usage in buildings, trans-
port, and equipment.

Fig. 28.3 Framework demonstrating ICT’s potential applications in climate change

444 C. Candano

Monitoring climate change through ICT is another way of assessing the extent of
the problem and its impacts. Several agencies and programmes in place combine
atmospheric and environmental monitoring with early warning systems to manage
disaster and risk associated with climate change. In collaboration with the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO), the partnership for World Weather Watch
incorporates telecom, data processing systems, as well remote sensing and environ-
mental monitoring. An example is the post-tsunami’s early warning system and
climate forecasting models to predict future warming (ITU 2008a, b, c).
Adaptation to climate change effects focuses on capacity building to manage
risks proactively for vulnerable communities. An example is the offline digitiza-
tion of maps to build adaptive capacity for disaster management begun by the
Hunger Project in southeast India after the tsunami. Knowledge management via
online platforms on adaptive strategies such as the Asia-Pacific Regional Climate
Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform (RCCAKP) are another example (UNEP
2008).

ITU Policy Areas Under the UN Climate Change Strategy

Greater coordination as part of UN response to climate change has been high-

lighted, particularly under a collaborative effort to deliver specific strategy areas
across the UN agencies. As the first UN Secretary-General to visit ITU, Ban Ki-
moon identified the ITU as an important climate change stakeholder (ITU 2007).
Implicit in this stakeholder role is the focus on ICT governance and technical
expertise of ITU, as the main global platform on ICT governance within the UN
System, comprising 191 member states and non-governmental members.
ITU’s overall objectives include:
[promoting] the development of telecommunication networks and access telecommunica-
tion services by fostering cooperation among governments and a range of non-governmen-
tal actors that includes network operators, service providers, equipment manufacturers,
scientific and technical organisations, financial organisations and development organisa-
tions (ITU 2008a, b, c).

It spearheads the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), a global multi-

stakeholder consultation and policy-making effort. More concretely, its technical
recommendations are taken as guidelines for national ICT policy and private sector
standards. Related activities include “standardising telecommunications technolo-
gies, services and operations, including tariffs and numbering plans; allocating
radio frequency bands to different services and coordinating and registering fre-
quency assignments and satellite orbital positions so as to avoid harmful interfer-
ence; promoting the development of telecommunications infrastructure and
services, regulatory institutions, and human resources in developing countries;
providing information on global telecommunications trends and developments”
(MacLean et al. 2007).
28 ITU: Moving Towards a Global Policy Framework on ICTs and Climate Change 445

ITU is expected to contribute to, alongside other UN agencies covering climate

change mitigation, monitoring, and adaptation, the three ICT impact areas as
adapted from Heeks’s framework (UN Climate Change Strategy 2008). Climate
change mitigation areas cover: capacity building to implement new standards in
mitigation (particularly in technology needs assessments for developing countries)
and impact methodology of ICT for climate change (particularly in energy use).
Climate change monitoring areas cover: observation of global climate change
system to link climate data to early warming and action networks (especially in
terms of policy options), as well as monitoring climate vulnerabilities and impacts
in developing countries. Climate impacts adaptation covers: capacity building for
mainstreaming climate change into development strategies; building an institu-
tional framework and assisting LDCs on effective disaster risk reduction; and
building on Global E-Sustainability (GeSI) efforts within the ICT sector.

Towards a Framework on ICTs and Climate Change

ITU holds the potential as a harbinger of coherence for stakeholders involved and as
a catalyst across related policy fields, within a system of fragmented efforts to
bridge the gap between ICTs and climate change. Within these potentials lies the
foundation for a global policy framework in the field that addresses some gaps in
both practice and policy.

Potential for Coherence

ITU’s potential to provide coherence within this emerging field is noteworthy due
to its complexity. Where a nuanced trade-off between levels of ICT impacts across
cross-sectoral efforts may be needed, technical expertise may enable navigation. It
is not surprising that various groups from IOs, IGOs, academia, governments, and
business organizations with such expertise have positioned themselves, staking
their claim, on some aspect of the debate particularly on standardization (Appen-
dix). It is not until the past 2 years that ITU began to be involved in environment
and ICT issues within the UN system itself. Previously, the issue was largely in the
realm of the UNEP, under its work on sustainable production and consumption
wherein ICT enabled products and processes were included.
Many voluntary players implied various policy stances, methodologies, codes of
conduct, and even technical expertise in the community. Currently, overall leader-
ship or management in terms of a comprehensive programme to address various
aspects of ICT and climate change links remains to be seen. As such, actors may
overlap work across various groups or those which fail to build on core competen-
cies to contribute innovations. Within such competing and fragmented efforts, some
coherence is needed. This is not to suggest that ITU position itself as a foremost
446 C. Candano

policy authority to encompass all aspects of the issue. Rather it would be helpful for
ITU to consider how it has the best position to enable consensus towards the more
urgent areas of focus. For example, ITU already has previously collaborated in
energy efficiency standardization for equipment and telecommunication networks
(Appendix). It would be good to consider which areas ITU could link or provide a
general map of sub-roles given its stature in the global ICT community.

Potential for Catalysis

A number of reports have been published in recent years examining the relationship
among ICTs and environmental action nationally and regionally. Little attention
has been paid to how policy efforts which can enable innovation may contribute to
address the issue. The annual sustainability reports developed by UNEP, UNDP,
and OECD barely discuss the link between ICT policy and environmental sustain-
ability, particularly its link to climate-related issues. Historically minimal inter-
agency coordination with the ITU, housing the ICT technical expertise within the
UN, may be the source of such omission. The catalytic role of ITU to champion
ICT-related solutions can potentially bridge this gap that exists across environmen-
tal assessment exercises and policy proposals.
Another context of ITU’s catalytic potential is in the nature of the ICT solutions
needed – the technological resources would need to be drawn from an innovative
private sector. Despite documented solutions ICT providers can use (Heeks 2009),
localized innovations across industries and the public sector on a macro-level will
be valued to enable relevant emissions impact with ICT applications. For systemic
level ICT impact, the supra-level actor on transboundary considerations in ICT such
as the ITU can play such a role across private–public partnerships. This supports the
UN Climate Change Strategy as it specifically highlights the potential of harnessing
existing ITU public–private partnership platforms on environmental ICT supply
chains, GeSi.
Subsumed within the catalytic role would be an integrative and balanced
approach to understanding climate change and ICT potentials, primarily between
the different needs across developing countries and developed countries. From
Heeks’s framework, ITU’s centralization allows it to contribute across three levels
of climate change response – from end-of-pipe mitigation towards preventive,
proactive adaptation. However, most of the areas identified by the UN strategy
for ITU collaboration with other agencies relate to assisting developing countries to
put together strategies to climate-proof their development paths. The identified
areas emphasized in the UN Climate Change Strategy document include techno-
logical assessments, climate impact monitoring and disaster risk management. The
focus seemed to bulk up vulnerable countries’ needs related to state commitments
to undertake national communications and assessment reporting cycles under the
UNFCCC. Considering that historical responsibility for emissions lies with the
developed countries, it would be a more balanced direction to seek deliverables
28 ITU: Moving Towards a Global Policy Framework on ICTs and Climate Change 447

which also address the issue of developed countries’ energy-dependent economies

and lifestyles. Only two specific tasks were relevant across both developed and
developing countries: impact methodology assessments of ICTs and related energy
use, as well as the mobilizing of the existing GeSI public–private partnership. The
ITU in cooperation with the UNEP set up the Global e-Sustainability Initiative
(GeSI), as an environmental management supply chain initiative of ICT service
providers and suppliers in the early 2000s (ITU 2008a, b, c).

ITU’s Prospects on the Road

During the early days of the Kyoto Protocol in the late 1990s, very little interest in
addressing the link between ICT and climate change resulted in policies that were
primarily focused on macro-level state intervention via carbon credit and offset
partnership schemes across states. As ITU moves to support the UN Climate
Change Strategy, there is likelihood that potentials for catalysis and coherence
can be acted upon. However, it is noted that prospects and gaps have arisen in ITU’s
ongoing programme of work internally within the organization. Opportunities in
policy areas outside of its immediate next steps, external to the organization, are
considered to chart the potentials under a macro-level perspective.

Micro-Level/Internal Forces

From an internal perspective, ITU has played on its strengths, but at the same time
inherent weaknesses of their atypical modes of practice exist also. Concretely, the
past 2 years has seen the ITU mobilize its existing platforms on ICT governance to
the task of mainstreaming climate change. Currently under the WSIS system, ITU
has developed a “Dynamic Coalition on Internet and Climate Change (DCICC)”, an
umbrella organization intended to catalyse multi-sectoral action on the issue. The
DCICC was initiated at the second Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in 2007 and
subsequently held its first physical meeting at the third IGF in December 2008. The
coalition partners covered IGOs, NGOs, academic institutions, industry players and
national ICT regulatory bodies: ITU, GeSI, OECD, Japan’s Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communication (MIC), International Institute for Sustainable Devel-
opment (IISD); and industry partners British Telecom (BT), Deutsche Telekom,
Daisy Consortium, CAST (China Association for Science and Technology), Nepal
Wireless, Tama University Japan, CSDMS (Center for Science, Development and
Media Studies), Wipro Technologies, and CTO (Commonwealth Telecommunica-
tion Organization) (IGF 2008).
Internal limitations from this arrangement can be seen in terms of ITU’s struc-
ture, policy environment and timeframe it faces, its scope of influence, and its
potential to stimulate innovation. Structurally, the location of this coalition within
448 C. Candano

the context of the IGF – with its discussions on internet access, equity, security –
may dilute urgency of mobilization. This position may achieve the potential for
catalysis in two ways that could indicate whether or not action will be swift: either
through optimization of current multi-issue partnerships towards a separate priority
track with a climate change focus in IGF, or through a mainstreaming of climate
change impact considerations in the context of overriding IGF issues. The dyna-
mism and responsiveness of the DICC therefore remains to be seen.
Although urgent action is needed as directed by UN climate strategy, the
catalytic role of ITU has only begun to build up in the middle of 2008 up until
the present with the working group derived from the DCICC. So far, two meetings
of this sub-working group from the DCICC have taken place in Japan and UK, with
the next one to happen in mid-2009 in Ecuador – however, the preliminary
deliverables of the working group may limit a significant contribution when the
2009 UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) meet in Copenhagen to address the
new policy regime needed to replace the Kyoto Protocol. In terms of DCICC’s
scope of influence, the exclusion of broadcast technologies and search engine
companies not included in current public–private partnerships due to the converged
definitions of information industries, implies that the massive computing technol-
ogies of these sectors may be left unconsidered in DICC-led ICT climate impact
strategies. These two considerations may affect the potential of ITU to serve as a
force for coherence within the cacophony of various voices within the UN system,
across the IGOs, and in terms of the technological proposals related to climate
mitigation and adaptation that are expected to be more contentious. It is expected
that, given the lack of consensus from states in the previous Poznan COP, the
various actors will likely be highlighting their own respective remedy to the post-
Kyoto climate policy regime at the Copenhagen COP in December 2009 for
agreement at the plenary.

Macro-Level/External Forces

Outside of its current programme of work, ITU has the opportunity to respond to
such potential through addressing ICT policy gaps on climate change in terms of
knowledge management, cleaner technology road-mapping and promotion of low
carbon tech lifestyles. The first potential area is in its knowledge management role,
the ITU being the logical choice as a global clearing house of best practice, high-
lighting potentials for catalysis and coherence. Ensuring adequate information-
sharing schemes and models to enable documentation of practice is critical, so as
to provide gentle guidance towards coherence across voluntary actors, than stan-
dardization. Also, ITU’s current roster of robust and diverse partnerships can be
catalyzed towards this innovative storehouse of practice. ITU’s ad hoc publications
and minimal website content provide promise for an endeavour such as this,
particularly as this is an expression of focus on dematerialization in commitment
to become a carbon-neutral ITU in 3 years (ITU 2008a, b, c).
28 ITU: Moving Towards a Global Policy Framework on ICTs and Climate Change 449

The second potential policy area for ITU is the standardization of internet access
technology (across both infrastructure and equipment) which plays on its existing
work in the area of energy-efficiency standardization for network infrastructure and
computing equipment (Appendix). However, the potential for coherence herein lies
in its ability to provide what industry organizations have identified earlier: a road-
map of clean internet technologies, which belies ITU’s historical expertise as the
standardization catalyst (Willard and Michael 2003). The proposals for DCICC to
examine a life-cycle approach to technologies may isolate the production and
consumption of such. In terms of real life application of ICTs, it is unlikely that
people will use ICTs in phases. In fact, ICT usage is often in parallel to substitutes,
especially when considering various types of internet access technologies. The use
of infrastructure to support a growing industry of internet-related businesses,
particularly search engines, proposes growing server needs, each of which need
to be powered by energy or need energy to be cooled. In this regard, the potential for
coherence stems from the integrated viewpoint that ITU may take across internet
service provision and consumer access, which in turn may have catalytic effects
across the specific production and life-cycle studies of the technology towards
standardization.
The third potential policy area of the ITU is the promotion of lower carbon
technology lifestyles, which is something that has not been undertaken by various
UN agencies in a holistic manner, integrating understanding of technology use and
climate impacts. Such would be the ultimate expression of the potentials for
catalysis and coherence – not only from a supply side perspective, but also from
a demand side perspective to viewing ICT impacts on climate change. ITU’s strong
technical expertise may be the necessary link between technology impact and
consumer use. This may make a difference between largely technology-determin-
istic solutions currently on the table. Although attempts to link growing innovation
in energy-efficient technology and relations to technology-user behaviour is tan-
gentially addressed by recommendations from the DCICC 2008 panel’s recommen-
dation, there is a concern that this may be too simplistic if viewed without
considering integrated effects and balance between supply and demand side pre-
scriptions.
In general, the supply-side focused, technologically-deterministic approach of
the proposals is in providing methods to be aware of and educate users about the
emission potential of ICTs. Specifically, the DCICC proposals include the develop-
ment of industry and consumer tools to assess the impact of ICT use on climate
change; ways ICTs can reduce GHG emissions in other sectors; life-cycle analysis
in relation between ICTs and climate change, and awareness-raising among con-
sumers (IGF 2008). However, the positive impacts of digitization, dematerializa-
tion and substitution of physical goods and services may be offset with large-scale
ICT use if touted as a magic bullet. Consider a policy that encourages travel
substitution through video conferencing; if excessively adopted, it may not neces-
sarily create the expected net reductions of GHG emissions due to interactive
effects. Or consider a public–private partnership labelling effort to brand green
consumer ICTs, which in the end may encourage excessive use of electronics by the
450 C. Candano

consumer (i.e. being left running even when not in use, due to complacency about
inherent energy efficiency). This leads to the concept of “rebound effects”, where
initial carbon emission or energy savings may in fact contribute to exponentially
greater adoption of technologies, therefore not only possibly negating but exceed-
ing the incremental emission savings (IPTS 2007).

Conclusion

The study explored the potentials of climate change mainstreaming into global ICT
policy platforms at the ITU, as the main agency within the United Nations to
address ICT issues. With the new directive in recent years for the organization to
move towards a framework regarding ICTs and climate change, there has been
groundwork particularly under the UN-wide push to strategically consolidate cli-
mate change activities across all agencies. However, the literature indicated calls
for such interdisciplinary policy explorations of ICT and climate change were
ongoing prior to the issuance of the directive from UN Headquarters. Various
voices from the market, the business sector, and non-governmental fields had
already been generating policy recommendations on what type of enabling envi-
ronment could hasten the efforts and galvanize the benefits of climate-friendly
ICTs.
A combination of supply and demand-side analysis of the forces internal and
external to the ecosystem of the ITU provided an indication of the potentials ITU
could contribute given its unique technical expertise and institutional memory. The
paper identified that ITU can enable greater coherence and catalysis among stake-
holders and policy areas from both demand and supply-driven perspectives. In
general, ongoing efforts have capitalized on the institutional strengths of the
organization, but not inasmuch as maximizing a potential role as harbinger of
coherence for productive collaborations among the multi-stakeholders in ICTs
and climate change. Furthermore, there is potential in the ITU to become a catalyst
across policy areas, especially based on the needs of various developmental states
across climate responses of mitigation, adaptation, and monitoring.
At a critical juncture of the UNFCCC COP 15 in Copenhagen 2009, the threats
and challenges to such potentials are compounded by a rapidly changing eco-
system of players in state, IO, IGO, market, and civil society in the climate change
arena. With each player striving for greater relevance in an increasingly over-
crowded climate change forum, the monopoly of policy intervention is no longer
in the hands of the few traditionally known players, nor in the hands of the well-
capacitated technologists. With both foresight from the hill and a close ear to the
ground, a more nimble ITU could better position a policy contribution to be
more meaningful. The rosy picture touted from the supply side of ICT as a magic
bullet to limit GHG emissions is not entirely true if taken in a vacuum, without
a demand-sideperspective. For example, with ICTs, end users’ own agency to crea-
tively appropriate applications, the context of ICT application, scale, substitution, and
28 ITU: Moving Towards a Global Policy Framework on ICTs and Climate Change 451

rebound effects is not solely in the hands of policy regulators who must contend
with these compounding effects for any climate change ICT intervention. Therefore,
a more dynamic and flexible context needs to be considered by the ITU as it moves
on the road towards a global policy framework on ICTs and climate change.

Acknowledgements The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the ASEAN Foundation
and the Japan-ASEAN Solidarity Fund.

Appendix: Table of Multi-sectoral Players in ICT and Climate

Change Standardization Work (ITU Working Group on ICT
and Climate Change)

Overview of standardization work

Area Organization
International Others
Policies UNEP and World Bank, European Commission, OECD
International Energy
Agency
Indicators and WMO OECD
statistics
Data collection ISO TC 211 IEEE SCC 40, European Commission JRC
Environmental ISO TC 207 –
management
Corporate ISO JTC1/SC7 Greenpeace, GHG Protocol Initiative
reporting
Energy IEC, ISO, ITU-T ATIS, CENELEC, Energy Star, ETSI, Energy
efficiency of Efficiency Inter-Operator Collaboration
equipment Group, European Commission JRC
Energy ITU-T Ethernet Alliance, Energy Efficiency Inter-
efficiency of Operator Collaboration Group, FTTH
networks Council, IEEE P802.3az, TIA, European
Commission JRC
Energy – Efficient Servers, Green Grid, TIA, European
efficiency of Commission JRC
data centres
Electronic waste – Basel Convention (MPPI and PACE), European
Commission, TTA
Equipment – Collaborative Labelling and Appliance
labelling Standards Programme, CEN/CENELEC,
Energy Star, TCO, Electronic Product
Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT)
452 C. Candano

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