Enabling conditions Box 12: Harnessing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

ICTs enabling the green economy Over the past two decades, the products and services produced by the information and communication technologies (ICTs) sector have been catalysts for economic growth. They have enabled productivity gains and transformed production processes, markets and industries in both developed and developing countries. A recent study found that internet-related consumption and expenditure – the central nervous system of the digital economy – is bigger than agriculture or energy. The study also found that the Internet’s total contribution to global GDP is bigger than the GDP of Spain or Canada, and is growing faster than Brazil’s (McKinsey Global Institute 2011).

There is growing recognition among ICT policy-makers and stakeholders that ICTs can be powerful enablers of the green economy through the transformation of economic infrastructures, industry sectors, and social behaviours. They can:

■ Increase the efficiency of production and consumption in energy, transportation, building and manufacturing sectors, through the deployment of smart systems. It is estimated that ICTs could reduce global GHG emissions by 15 per cent by 2020, compared to a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario with a 2002 baseline (The Climate Group 2008).

■ Wholly or partially “de-materialise” physical products,

services and processes, resulting in significant reductions in energy and materials consumption. Examples include paper saving through electronic billing; greater use of tele-work arrangements; and virtual meetings in the public and private sectors.

■ Increase access to education, health care and other public services; create new opportunities for social interaction and cultural expression; and facilitate participation in public life.

Future applications of ICTs could enable green economic activity in other ways. The development of new kinds of networks that include objects in the natural environment – commonly referred to as the Internet of Things – would enhance the capacity of public and private actors to monitor all manner of natural and human systems in real time, as well as to manage the operations and impacts of these systems in more sustainable ways. This would have implications for many sectors, including: natural systems providing ecological goods and services; agriculture; forestry; energy; transportation; and buildings and their facilities.

Notwithstanding, policy-makers should also recognise that ICTs come with sustainability challenges too – for example, by increasing overall demand for non-renewable energy and

material resources. The ICT sector has also become a major source of toxic pollution through e-waste and GHG emissions. Such effects need to be carefully balanced against the gains of ICTs, and mitigated where possible, to best promote green economic activity.

Enabling ICTs As with a number of green technologies, governments need to create the right enabling environment that will allow ICTs to flourish. This requires close collaboration between government agencies responsible for ICT and green economy initiatives, along with their respective stakeholder communities. Government interventions to enable ICTs to contribute to a green economy include:

■ Universal, affordable access to broadband networks and services. To a large extent, this objective can be achieved through regulatory frameworks that encourage private investment, promote competition among broadband service providers, ensure open network access to creators of broadband applications and content, and protect the rights of consumers to access broadband services, applications and content of their choice – a policy generally known as “net neutrality”. However, experience also shows that providing access to broadband networks in some geographic areas is uneconomic, and that broadband service is unaffordable for some groups. In such circumstances, many governments have subsidised broadband network deployment and service access through various forms of public investment, subsidies and regulatory requirements.

■ Transition to IPv6. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), a new addressing system, was developed more than a decade ago to succeed IPv4. Although it provides the virtually unlimited number of addresses that will be needed to support the deployment of smart systems and innovations such as the Internet of Things, its take-up has been slow. Public procurement can have a powerful effect in enabling a smooth transition to IPv6 by stimulating demand for IPv6 products and services. Regulatory requirements can also have a powerful effect.

■ Confidence and trust in the online environment. Policy- makers need to develop robust legal frameworks, regulatory arrangements, and enforcement mechanisms that will protect personal privacy and the rights of citizens and consumers, combat cybercrime, ensure the security and stability of electronic networks, and balance the rights of users and creators of information products and services. Industry can also contribute, by developing codes of practice that help protect consumers, and developing tools that allow internet users to manage their online identities.

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