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We sit at a historic crossroads. We have the opportunity to build a new communications economy based on bits and bytes, rather than the production and consumption of atoms and molecules, generated by fossil fuel intensive industries. It will be a high growth, low carbon, more equitable economy. One that creates jobs, reduces our GHG emissions, and provides greater access to goods and services, including healthcare and education, to rural areas and to people living in unserved and underserved communities. A key part of this vision is the ICT sector whose goods and services have the potential to transform the way we live and work, and help achieve significant GHG emissions reductions. To accomplish this, we need to build a more robust, reliable and high speed communications network by increasing our investment in broadband.


This paper will focus on the U.S. economy; however many of the points raised are highly relevant to businesses and governments across the globe. In developing this paper


140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0


2002 2004 Adapted from Wolfram Alphra7 2006 2008 (from April 2001 to Apr 2011) (in US dollars per barrel of oil equivalent) 2010


Introduction


The challenge and opportunity posed by increased competition for natural resources


we have drawn on CDP’s global dataset and our extensive experience in carbon management, conducted interviews with experts in sustainable business, economics, the ICT sector and reviewed existing research.


The challenge and opportunity posed by increased competition for natural resources


Globally the competition for oil and natural resources is a major driver in business and policy decisions. The most competitive economies of tomorrow will be those that see this resource constraint as an opportunity and revolutionize the way they operate to generate increased value using fewer resources.


The use of natural resources and the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, in particular, to power our economies, is a major contributor to GHG emissions, which must be managed if climate change issues are to be successfully addressed.


Recent International Energy Agency figures reported in 2011 show that GHG emissions increased by a record amount in 2010, to the highest output in history. About three-quarters of the increase came from emerging economies, including India and China, driven by global demand for their goods and services along with increased wealth.6


Oil prices are notoriously volatile due to the intricacies of supply and demand and there has been a general upwards trend in prices as shown in Figure 1.7


U.S. $ per barrel of oil equivalent Figure 1: Oil prices over time from April 2001 - April 2011


6. Cited in Vidal, J. 2011. Carbon Levels hit a new peak results show. Guardian online. Available from http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/ may/31/carbon-levels-peak Last accessed June 16th, 2011.


7. Wolfram Alphra knowledgebase 2011. Available from http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=oil+price Last accessed June 16th, 2011.


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