Green ICT and Climate Change

Ms. Gigi MeriloSr. EMS

Environmental Management BureauDepartment of Environment and Natural Resources

Tech Talk for the Youth , “Empowering the Youth Through ICT”, June 28, 2012 , NCC Audio-Visual Room,  National Computer Center Bldg., C.P. Garcia Avenue, Diliman,

Quezon City

ContentsContents

• What is climate change?• Anthropogenic sources of climate change• The Philippines 2000 Greenhouse Inventory• How do ICTs contribute to climate change?• What is the role of ICTs in mitigating climate

change? • Current initiatives of ICTs in addressing

climate change

What is climate change?

• “A change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activityhuman activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over a comparable period of time.” - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

• “Any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human result of human activityactivity.”

- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

The Anthropogenic Sources of GHGs

• Basically, there are three main human sources of ghgs:– energy generation and industrial processes– transportation and – land-use, agriculture and forestry.

The Anthropogenic Sources of GHGs

Human activities that lead to the increase in concentration of greenhouse gases include:

– worldwide deforestation– increasing industrial activity– motor vehicle emission– waste management practices and– intensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Philippines 2000 Greenhouse Gas Inventory

Overall GHG Emissions: 21,767.41 Gg CO2-eq

Overall GHG emissions:

21,767 Gg CO2-eq

Total emissions from non-LUCF

sectors:

126,879 Gg CO2-eq

Effects of Climate ChangeEffects of Climate Change

• Increase in minimum (nighttime) temperatures, maximum (daytime) temperatures, and increases in the global mean temperature.

• Increase in sea surface temperatures, sea level and changes in evaporation, and thus, changes in rainfall patterns among others.

• Extreme changes in weather patterns

Effects of Global WarmingEffects of Global Warming

A recent report by the Working Group 1 to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a global group of experts on climate studies had recently been released in February 2007.

“…warming of the climate system is unequivocal . . . and that most of

the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-2oth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic

greenhouse gas concentrations” (IPCC FAR)

Effects of Climate ChangeEffects of Climate Change

According to the assessment report:

Global average surface temperature increased by 0.74°C (1906-2005) which is higher than the Third Assessment Report (TAR) of 0.6°C (1901-2000).

Effects of Climate ChangeEffects of Climate Change

According to the assessment report:

– Global average sea level rose due to increase in the global average surface temperature at an average rate of 1.8 mm per year over 1961 to 2003 or a total of 0.17m for the 21st century

• Sea level rise will occur mostly as a result of the thermal expansion of warming ocean waters, the influx of freshwater from melting glaciers and ice, and vertical movements of the land itself.

Effects of Climate ChangeEffects of Climate Change

Are there projections for further warming?

• Yes, there are projected increases from 1.4°C to 5.8°C during the 21st century leading to an increase in the sea level from 18-59 cm by 2100.

• In the Philippines, under the A1B scenario, mean annual temperatures are expected to rise by about 0.9°C to 1.2°C for 2020 and 1.7°C to 2.2°C by 2050.

Climate Change and impact of Climate Change and impact of ICTsICTs• As part of the industry sector, the ICTs Sector itself contributes

around 2% of GHG, which is smaller than its share of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

• Proliferation of user devices, all of which need power and radiate heat (i.e., mobile phones, internet users from dial-up to broadband)– A PC uses 280 watts; there are 5 million PCs in the UK public

sector alone

– More home PCs are being left on 24x7 with broadband connections

– Moore’s Law => more and more computing power crammed into ever smaller spaces. Heat load increases.

• Each individual may own many more devices• As these ICT devices acquire more processing power, their

requirements for power and cooling, also rise (e.g. 3G mobile phones which operate at higher frequencies and need more power than 2G ones.

Climate Change and impact of Climate Change and impact of ICTsICTs•More Internet => more data centres => more power

– US data centres: • 2000 - 5.6m servers; 2005 - 10.3m servers• Electricity consumption = approx 5x1000 MW power stations (cost $2.7m)• Or 0.6% of US electricity consumption, rising to 1.2% including data centre auxiliary •infrastructure equipment, network and cooling gear; equivalent to all colour TVs in the United States.

– Worldwide data centres: • 2000 – 14.1m servers; 2005 - 27.3m servers • Electricity consumption = approx 14 x 1000 MW power stations (cost $7.2m)

– Drivers:• Volume of servers: increasing numbers of cheap, low end servers• Volume growth = approx 90% of increased power, cf energy per unit up by only 5-8%

Source: Data centre power use doubles 2000-2005, J Koomey, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs/AMD, Feb 2007

Climate Change and impact of Climate Change and impact of ICTsICTs

ICTs

Manufacture of electronics

Increase in electricity required to power various personal devices and data centers

Energy consumption

Increase in GHG emissions

How can ICTs improve How can ICTs improve environmental performance and environmental performance and address climate change across the address climate change across the economy?economy?

• ICT innovation is a key element to spur green growth in the economic crisis and recovery.

• Environmental benefits of ICT applications are evident in areas such as energy, transport, intelligent buildings, water management, biodiversity protection and pollution reduction.

• Smart ICT applications and innovations are key to achieving ambitious CO2 emission reductions thereby, help combat global warming.– “ICT can reduce annual global emissions by 15% by 2020 and

deliver energy efficiency savings to global businesses of over EUR 500 billion”

Role of Green ICTs in Addressing Climate Change

In climate research . . .In climate research . . .

• Monitoring effects of climate change– Remote monitoring and data collection using ICT-

equipped sensors (telemetry) is essential for research– Development of aerial photography, satellite imagery,

grid technology and use of global positioning system (GPS) for tracking slow long-term movement (i.e. glacier changes, etc.)

• Computer modelling of the earth’s atmosphere– Meteorological services– Production of sophisticated general circulation models

(GCMs) (e.g, Hadley Centre for Climate Change runs a variety of climate models on a suite of NEC SX-C supercomputers which have higher processing power)

In climate change adaptation . . .In climate change adaptation . . .

• Use of telecommunications/ICTs for monitoring and management in emergency and disaster situations for early warning, prevention, mitigation and relief

In climate change mitigation In climate change mitigation . . .. . .

• Environmental protection, waste management and in environmentally-friendly supply chain management

• Transport avoidance thru enabling home working (tele-working) or reducing travel to meetings with teleconferencing

• Implementation of energy efficiency measures and practices within data centers

• Directly, by reducing the ICT sector’s own energy requirements (eg. European Telecom Networks Operators’ association to reduce their overall emissions by 7% and their carbon intensity (per unit of turnover) by 14%.

• Indirectly, through using ICTs for carbon displacement

• In a systemic way, by providing a technology to implement and monitor carbon reductions in other sectors of the economy.

Current initiatives of ICTs on Current initiatives of ICTs on addressing climate changeaddressing climate change

• Reduction of power requirements of telecommunication equipment including terminal devices and networking equipment. Energy efficient ICT equipment will reduce the production of GHG and hence, reduce global warming.

• Next-generation-networks (NGN) expected to reduce energy consumption by 40%

• Role in disaster relief and for emergency services/ early warning systems

• Use of audiovisual and multimedia systems including video-conferencing

• Efficient transport systems

• Use of recycling and safe disposal of waste for outside plant

Source:ITU-T Technology Watch Report 3, December 2007

Thank you . . .