1 October 2012
ITU Green Standards Week Adopts Declaration on Green Growth and Climate Change
story highlights

The ITU Second Green Standards Week featured a variety of forums and sessions on sustainable cities, energy efficiency and ICTs, e-waste, greening the ICT supply chain, greening the economy through ICT standards, environmental sustainability, environmental impact assessments of ICT, and submarine communications networks for climate monitoring and disaster warning.

21 September 2012: The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Second Green Standards Week concluded with the adoption of the Paris Declaration on green growth and climate change, as well as the issuance of a call to action on smart sustainable cities.

The Green Standards Week was held from 17-21 September 2012 in Paris, France, and was organized by ITU and TechAmerica Europe and hosted by Microsoft. The aim of the event was to raise awareness of the importance and opportunities of using information and communication technology (ICT) standards to build a green economy. It included a variety of forums and sessions on sustainable cities, energy efficiency and ICTs, e-waste, greening the ICT supply chain, greening the economy through ICT standards, environmental sustainability, environmental impact assessments of ICT, and submarine communications networks for climate monitoring and disaster warning.

It brought together leading specialists in the ICT sector, who adopted the Paris Declaration, titled “Green Growth and Climate Change Commitments: The ICT Sector Shows the Way.” The Declaration reiterates the call for governments to recognize the ICT sector’s potential to contribute to climate change mitigation and economic recovery. It calls on the ITU to contribute to this by developing green ICT indicators, creating an information and idea exchange portal, providing technical assistance to countries to develop their national green ICT action plans, and developing e-learning programmes on the application and implementation of ITU standards related to ICT, the environment and climate change.

In addition, participants at the Forum on Greener Smarter Better Cities, which was organized by ITU and European Commission, issued the “Call to Action on Smart Sustainable Cities,” calling on municipalities, the ICT sector, policy makers, and international and regional organizations, to identify and agree on key priorities to boost the development of sustainable, smart, climate-neutral urban areas. The Call to Action also outlines key priorities relating to, among other things, climate change mitigation, energy efficiency, waste management, water management, climate change adaptation and urban planning, and community engagement and environmental justice.

The event also featured the award ceremony of the second ITU Green ICT Applications Challenge, which was organized by ITU and Telefónica to find the best and most innovative ideas for an ICT application to help promote “sustainable energy for all.” The winning application was a Facebook application, “SocialElectricity,” which was designed by Andreas Kamilaris and allows people to compare their electricity footprint with those of their friends and neighborhood, village and town. [Event Webpage] [Paris Declaration on Green Growth and Climate Change] [Call to Action on Smart Sustainable Cities]

related posts