Climate Change

Wednesday, 26 October
11.00 - 12.30  
Ministerial Roundtable: ICTs and Climate Change
LabSpace #1

 

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity today.

 

It seems likely that human activities are accelerating the rapid warming of the planet, partly through the release of greenhouse gases (GHG). 2010 was one of the warmest years on record. Human activities may also be interfering with the planet’s natural mechanisms for responding and adapting to this change.

 

Radical fresh thinking is required to tackle this problem. The pervasive uptake of ICTs can both contribute to the problem and to the solution. Establishing standards for energy-efficient ICT equipment could leverage and mitigate carbon emissions across all sectors including health care, power and financial sectors.

 

Will the move to cloud computing entail greater or reduced carbon emissions? Where should server farms be located so as to cause minimum environmental impact? And what about the waste from billions of obsolete mobile phones and computers?

 

This Ministerial Round Table debates how ICTs could positively impact on this challenge. It considers how industry and government can work together to promote sustainable ICTs. Top policy-makers share experience and best practices of how policy can guide the use of ICTs to combat climate change, and how ITU can contribute to this effort.

 

Moderator:

 

  • Mr Houlin Zhao, Deputy Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

 

Ministers:

 

  • H.E. Mr. Mr Hasanul Haq Inu, Honorable Member of Parliament and Chairman, Standing Committee (Bangladesh)
     
  • H.E. Dr Mohamed Abdel Kader Mohamed Salem, Minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) (Egypt)
     
  • Hon. Eng.  Philip  Okundi,  Chairman, Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) (Kenya)
     
  • H.E. Mr Salifou Lao Bouché, Minister of Communication and New  Technologies & Information (Niger)
     
  • H.E. Mrs Jasna Matic, State Secretary for Digital Agenda, Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society (Serbia)
     
  • H.E. Mr Radhakrishna Padayachie, Minister of Communications (South Africa)
     
  • H.E. Mr Ruhakana Rugunda, Minister of Information and Communications Technology (Uganda)

 

Participants:

 

  • Mr Edzard Overbeek, President, Cisco Asia-Pacific (USA)
     
  • Representative from Huawei
     
  • Hon. Eng.  Philip  Okundi,  Chairman, Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK)