2


CDP’s data collected over the last decade shows a general correlation between economic growth and GHG emissions growth. However, as the cost of energy increases along with competition for resources, the most successful companies will be those that can generate value without increasing carbon emissions.


ICT or Information Communications Technology is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and software applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning.11


The ICT sector shows all the attributes that will help drive the economy towards our low carbon, high growth vision.


a) ICT generates greater economic value, including jobs, with fewer carbon emissions than many other sectors.


• The average rate of growth in the U.S. economy between 2004 and 2006 was 3.2%. The ICT producing industries growth exceeded 11% throughout this period. These industries account for less than 4% of current-dollar GDP, but they accounted for almost 15% of real GDP growth.12


ICT Sector


Creating more economic value with lower greenhouse gas emissions


Figure 4: Cross sector net income per metric ton CO2 Income (U.S. $) per metric ton CO2


4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0


ICT*


Consumer Discretionary


Consumer Staples


Industrials *ICT sector includes Information Technology and Telecommunications


• The ICT sector generates higher net income per metric ton of carbon than many other sectors which are more dependent on natural resources to generate value.13


For example, the


which is double that of the Consumer Staples sector, almost three times that of the Industrials sector and over seven times that of the Materials and Transport sectors. Figure 4 shows the comparison between ICT and other lower performing sectors.


ICT sector generates over $4,000 net income per ton of CO2


equivalent


• The sector is one of the largest and fastest sources of job growth. Employment in this area has been predicted to increase by 450,000 jobs between 2004 and 2014.14


b) ICT can help drive efficiencies and decrease carbon emissions across sectors.


• The Smart 2020 report, produced by the Climate Group, set out to show the potential role ICT can play in emissions reduction. It highlighted that although ICT’s global contribution to


Materials Transport -e


11. Search CIO midmarket.com Definition ICT. Available from http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/definition/ICT Last accessed June 16th, 2011.


12. Bureau of Economic Analysis news release, 2008. Private Services-Producing Sector Continued to Lead Growth in 2006. Available from http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/industry/gdpindustry/2008/gdpind06_rev.htm Last accessed June 16th, 2011.


13. To establish these values we extracted Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions data from Investor CDP 2010 responses and averaged the combined value for the different sectors. Sector averaged financial data from Bloomberg was then combined with the CDP data.


14. Berman, J. 2005. Industry Output and employment projections to 2014. Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Labor Review. Available from http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/11/art4full.pdf Last accessed June 16th, 2011.


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