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ICT and sustainability

Eurescom mess@ge 1-2009

There is a widespread agreement that ICT is a key enabler of sustainability. Only with the help of ICT will we be able to master the challenges posed by resource scarcity, C02 emissions, climate change, and other environmental hazards.

However, in recent months sustainability has been increasingly pushed aside on the public agenda by the economic and financial crisis. Despite the close connection between economic crisis, energy issues and and environmental issues, the economic recovery plans so far have only to a limited extent considered sustainability issues.

Nevertheless, sustainability continues to be of high importance, particularly in Europe, where the EU’s 20/20/20 goals are still valid. And in the ICT industry, the trend towards energy efficiency and sustainable use of resources seems to have gained some momentum beyond politically correct showcases.

Issue 1/2009 of Eurescom mess@ge presents some facets of ICT and sustainability. Leading experts provide exclusive insights on European activities towards improving energy efficiency, and ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré talks about his vision of ICT and sustainability in an interview with Eurescom mess@ge.

Sustainable ICT and energy efficiency
In the long history of human existence on Earth, securing energy resources and exploiting them efficiently has played a very important role. On a socio-economic and political level, the consumptive needs for energy and scarcity of energy resources have strongly influenced energy production, our environment and our quality of life. Two major trends have recently stimulated the need for reducing energy consumption and improvements in energy production: increasing energy costs, which reflect the steep rise in demand and the scarcity of carbon-based energy resources, and increasing CO2 emissions caused by carbon-based energy consumption, which are contributing to negative climatic changes.

Reducing CO2 emissions at home – The AIM project
Climate change can be attributed to several factors associated to human activity. The most important among these factors are CO2 emissions. As households have the largest share among CO2 emissions, the EU-funded research project AIM is focusing on ways for increasing energy efficience in the home.

Interview with ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré on ICT and sustainability
Standards can have a major impact on the sustainability of information and communication technology (ICT). Eurescom mess@ge editor-in-chief, Milon Gupta, asked Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), about his views on ICT and sustainability. Besides standardisation and radio-spectrum allocation, the ITU is also pushing for access to ICT in developing countries. The development aspect is of high importance to the sustainability discussion, and it is of particular interest to Dr. Touré, who played a key role in developing satellite communications in Africa.

A manufacturer’s view on sustainable ICT
Global warming and other environmental issues have brought sustainability high up on the political and socio-economic agenda. Thus, sustainability is also an important topic for the ICT industry. As a leading manufacturer of ICT equipment Alcatel-Lucent is committed to doing its part in tackling global environmental challenges by driving an eco-sustainable communications transformation that will yield tangible business benefits.

THE KENNEDY PERSPECTIVE

Copyright protection –
Why the “three strikes” solution doesn’t work
In discussions on copyright protection today, there is a strong lobby group of copyright owners. They are pushing for European legislation to adopt rules that anyone caught illicitly downloading copyrighted material more than twice should be barred from the Internet. This is a very short-sighted approach to a complex problem.

VIEWPOINT

FTTH in Europe – A delayed take-off
For years now, fibre to the home (FTTH) seemed to be around the corner in Europe. Everybody agrees that fibre is the most future-proof access solution and that Europe needs to step up its activities in this regard, in order not to be left behind. The question is, what is happening now, in the middle of the financial crisis, and what is the outlook for Europe?

PROJECT REPORTS

Autonomic computing and networking - Eurescom study P1856
The manual management of pervasive and highly distributed large scale networking environments has become in practice due to their complexity almost impossible. In the area of computing, IBM promotes the concept of autonomic computing to overcome many manageability problems. The Eurescom study P1856 on Autonomic Computing and Networking extends the original autonomic computing vision to also cover the management of the emerging complexities in the network of the future. Autonomics is pivotal in the “Internet of the Future”.

Interconnection challenges of IP telephony - Eurescom study P1853
IP telephony service offerings are on the rise. Recently several such offers emerged, addressing both residential and corporate customers. As a result of this development the ratio of the overall IP telephony traffic compared to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) is changing rapidly, and in some countries the volume of VoIP traffic had become significant, if not dominant, already.

Obama's BlackBerry - Constraints of an Internet president
Barack Obama is widely regarded as the world's first "Internet president". His success in the US presidential election was based to a large extent on the ingenious use of the Internet for mobilising supporters and voters. He himself sent and read e-mails on his BlackBerrry day and night during his campaign. The device has almost always been fastened to his belt. It was, thus, tragically ironic, when soon after Obama's biggest triumph some security-concerned aides openly speculated in mid-November 2008 that the president-elect might have to part from his beloved BlackBerry.