Two months ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, the world body's telecoms arm urged governments and companies to use information technology to fight global warming, according to Reuters. "Information technologies contribute 2 to 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But they can also reduce emissions in other sectors by at least 15 percent," said Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary-General, at a telecoms industry event in Geneva. "This means they can be significant ... in our fight against climate change," he added. One of the most obvious uses for information technology is video conferencing, which allows people to attend meetings without travelling, thus reducing their carbon footprint. "When we consider that every week there are international conferences involving thousands of participants, virtual events ... would have a huge impact on emissions," Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau said. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is one of the specialised agencies of the United Nations and is lobbying Copenhagen negotiators to get more mention of ICT in the texts being prepared. "It's a struggle just to get ICT mentioned," Johnson said. But there's more to what is dubbed green ICT than virtual meetings. Indian network technology firm VNL for example focuses on building cheap solar-powered GSM base stations in rural areas in emerging markets like India. So far, they have delivered the first of 100 base stations but VNL sees major growth ahead. "By the end of this year we will be on three continents," VNL chairman Rajiv Mehrotra told Reuters in an interview.
