Utility/Smart City Dive, By Charles Despins, 15 Aug 2017
Today, efforts to create “smart communities” bring critical trends, too often considered as unrelated, into sharper focus. However, the solutions to all of these trends – including a sustainable approach to smart communities – are intimately linked.
Globalization and the decline of heavy industry in many regions of the world, including in the United States’ so-called Rust Belt, has sparked a search for solutions.
At the same time, the increasing opportunities that information and communications technology (ICT) offer to the “connected” threatens to deepen the digital divide.
The fight against climate change and the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remains an uphill battle as tangible actions in this respect are often trumped by economic growth concerns. In terms of public policy, a broadband strategy to build smart communities, regions and countries can actually be a unifying solution to all these issues if it addresses simultaneously the following three challenges:
- Widespread availability of broadband access (“broadband for all”)
- Ubiquitous application of ICT in different industry sectors
- Adoption and social acceptability of ICT solutions
Achieving all this is a major endeavor but one that must be tackled if so-called “smart” solutions are also to be sustainable – in other words, if they are to reconcile economic growth, environmental benefits and healthy social fabrics.
In terms of the first challenge, the “broadband for all” concept implies that it must be considered as an essential enabling infrastructure much like roads, sewers and the power grid. Broadband access is not about watching movies on the internet but is rather a fundamental pillar of ICT-enabled transformations towards sustainability in the 21st century. Broadband access should be ubiquitous, affordable, reliable, secure and truly “broadband.” For example, decentralized, municipal-based approaches in Sweden have proven to be successful in this respect without resorting to massive, nation-wide public investments.
Once broadband is available to every community, this enables enterprises and entrepreneurs to thrive with access to global information, business opportunities and customers. This is a proven strategy that provides the foundation for location-independent entrepreneurship and education, bridges the digital divide, and contributes to more efficient, less polluting smart communities.
This brings us to the second challenge of ubiquitous application of ICT solutions in different industry sectors, and more generally in various fields of human activity. It offers huge potential environmental benefits in terms of energy efficiency and mitigation of GHG emissions, all while spurring productivity and economic growth, a well documented impact of ICT. Proper adoption of ICT-enabled solutions must be achieved among individuals as well as within private and public organizations. Yet ICTs are powerful technologies and if not used properly, can wreak havoc. Hence, social acceptance of these solutions is essential to make full use of their potential to create a better life for citizens.
This third challenge may seem simple; however, it is decidedly not easy. Regulatory changes at various government levels, organizational transformations as well as cultural and behavior changes among citizens and end-users of broadband may be the most difficult barriers to its adoption and best uses. But allow me to make the case as to why we must support it.
The power of green ICT
Broadband is simply a fat pipe. It’s how we use broadband – the applications, solutions and services that ride on it – that can contribute to smart and sustainable communities. And the green ICT movement is a critical component of those solutions and services.
Studies have found that, today, ICT generates between 2-3% of global GHG emissions, about the same as another major culprit, the airline industry. However, as Internet use is skyrocketing, ICT infrastructures and applications could actually outpace the airline industry in terms of GHG emissions, with related environmental damage.
Today, the ICT industry has made great strides in a concerted global effort to exponentially improve the energy efficiency of telecom networks and reduce its GHG footprint. But the broader opportunity lies not so much in “green ICT” but in “greening through ICT.” This means that ICT-enabled transformations can drive energy efficiency, reduced GHG footprint and sustainability in various spheres of human activities and different industry verticals through the infrastructure of smart communities that will also support entrepreneurship and economic revival.
In fact, a 2015 GeSI study has shown that 20% of the world’s GHG emissions could be eliminated by 2030 through ICT-enabled solutions in various vertical application sectors. This “greening through ICT” opportunity should therefore be part of any GHG emission reduction action plan.
From smart to sustainable communities: the challenges
In my view, “smart” communities aren’t necessarily “sustainable” communities. Smart technology may make systems more efficient and autonomous, but sustainability demands more holistic thinking that encompasses technology’s entire life cycle, from manufacturing to use and disposal.
In a sense, that’s the easy part. To truly achieve sustainable communities, we could benefit from much greater dialogue and knowledge exchange between technology innovators and policymakers. And because technology should be ultimately a tool for citizens, such a dialogue could foster adoption by end users and the required social transformations that challenge humans’ tendency toward behavioral inertia.
Even with ubiquitous broadband supporting green ICT applications and entrepreneurial solutions, the people left behind by the digital revolution, i.e. Rust Belt ex-factory workers or their offspring, will need support to join what they may perceive is only a “gig” economy, which admittedly has its own pitfalls. They’d have the tools at hand, however, as they grasp the opportunities.
Case study: Stockholm
We can look abroad to early adopters of ubiquitous broadband to see how it has contributed to economic prosperity. Way back in 1994, Stockholm embarked on a city-sponsored fiber backbone that initially connected civic and educational institutions, though businesses soon sought connection to the network. By 2002, residential broadband caught on and in recent years connectivity has extended to almost all of the city’s population.
A study of Stockholm’s broadband policy – “Stockholm’s Stokab: A Blueprint for Ubiquitous Fiber Connectivity?” – cites three major resulting contributions to economic growth.
- It has brought Stockholm recognition as business-friendly and established it as a tech hub with state-of-the-art telecom infrastructure.
- The city administration is using fiber connectivity to raise the efficiency (and lower costs) of public services
- Its open data initiative has enabled third-party developers to devise new services using city-generated data.
The city’s investment showed a positive return-on-investment (ROI) within ten years for a system that is owned by the citizens and offers open access to any party’s value proposition. Indeed, scores of IT solution providers currently use the network to serve various industry verticals.
Granted, Stockholm is a major European city with a metropolitan and cosmopolitan mindset that probably sped broadband adoption and exploitation of its many potential uses. But the principles of public-private partnerships, open access, attraction of value-creating entrepreneurs and enterprises and tangible results should speak volumes to anyone pursuing infrastructure solutions for smart and sustainable communities.
The takeaways
Just as many parts of the world, for instance, pursued ubiquitous access to power in the 20th century and created special programs to ensure that power reached rural communities, so it is a 21st century need to similarly extend broadband to all.
City planners, managers, citizens and other stakeholders should recognize broadband as essential infrastructure, just like water and power, and leverage its contribution to economic development, a clean environment and healthy social fabrics, particularly when globalization and shifts in traditional manufacturing paradigms put their communities at risk. It is the core transition we all have to make in the first few decades of the 21st century.
Arkansas Utility Leads On Energy & Broadband
August 17th, 2017 by John Farrell Originally published at ilsr.org. This article was co-written with ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks initiative research associate, Hannah Trostle, and this piece is cross-posted on MuniNetworks.org.
Ouachita Electric Cooperative, nestled deep in south-central Arkansas, is an unlikely innovator in a pair of industries struggling to adapt to shifting market dynamics: electricity and broadband.
Despite rising demand for energy efficiency and renewable electricity generation, large investor-owned utilities — and many rural electric co-ops — have resisted programs to address those needs. Likewise, corporate Internet service providers frequently offer shoddy service at high rates, a particular problem in rural areas with limited competition.
But Ouachita Electric found a way to do both things better, with complementary technologies. Fiber-optic network investments provided lower cost Internet access, but also provide an information backbone for the electric utility that can reduce outage times and verification for energy savings programs. The network and the efficiency programs reduce costs for a customer base dominated by low-income households that can now reinvest their earnings elsewhere in the community.
Inclusive Financing
The utility’s tariff-based, on-bill financing program — known as HELP PAYS — allows customers to invest in energy efficiency upgrades at their homes, like insulation and heat pumps, at no upfront cost. Ouachita Electric covers eligible expenses, then recoups its buy-in through payments from participating customers on their monthly bills. Customers immediately pay less thanks to utility-financed energy-saving improvements.
Unlike other energy efficiency programs, the opt-in “inclusive financing” program, HELP PAYS, enables all Ouachita customers to capture significant benefits:
- Low-income households can pay, because they don’t need to come up with thousands of dollars upfront for qualifying improvements.
- Renters can participate, because monthly charges are attached to individual meters rather than individual customers, meaning they won’t be saddled with costs if they move.
- The tariff structure does not hinge eligibility on a minimum credit score, unlike loan-based programs that rely on private financiers.
Customer interest in the tariff-based, on-bill program surged immediately after Ouachita Electric implemented it last year. In the first three months, the number of customers seeking efficiency assessments — a precursor to improvements — doubled, from 73 to more than 162.
In August, the utility reported 100% of multifamily and rental units eligible for the program had opted in. At the same point, 92% of single-family customers that had received offers to invest in upgrades agreed to do so.
The impact of inclusive financing is especially pronounced in this co-op’s service territory, where the average household income hovers around $33,000 per year, far below the national median of $52,000.
But the benefits of inclusive financing, as proven by Ouachita Electric, extend much further.
The enterprising utility reports cost savings, confirmed and quantified using smart meters. Thanks to inclusive financing, Ouachita Electric has reduced the amount it spends on power to supply electricity to its members. Going forward, it will curb the need to add expensive new generation capacity.
A New Fiber Network
Electric cooperatives have tried a number of approaches to improve internet access for their largely rural customers, from working with satellite communication companies to experimenting with broadband over power lines. Now, Ouachita Electric has started a project to bring some of the fastest Internet service in the U.S. to their co-op members.
Ouachita Electric is collaborating with the local, family-owned, telephone company, South Arkansas Telephone, which already provides Internet service to half of Ouachita Electric’s service territory. The partnership, the Arkansas Rural Internet Service (ARIS), is set to bring phone, video, and gigabit Internet service — more than ten times the speeds typically offered by cable companies — to all 9,500 homes and businesses throughout Ouachita Electric’s service territory.
Ouachita Electric and South Arkansas Telephone are co-owners of ARIS, as described by ARIS Director Mark Lundy in Telecompetitor. As such, they will share both the cost of construction and the overall revenues.
Mark Cayce, the general manger of Ouachita Electric Cooperative, explained that the partnership builds on the strengths of both the electric cooperative and the local telephone company:
“They have technical expertise and back office skills we didn’t have. We have access to our members and we built a long-standing reputation of a company that provides really good service.”
They announced the project in mid-June 2016, expecting to hook up the first customers that September. ARIS will offer speeds of up to one gigabit (1,000 Mbps) directly to homes for less than $100 per month. The entire venture will involve installing about 1,800 miles of fiber over the next few years.
These rural communities cannot wait for the better connectivity — which won’t just be better than what they had, it will rival the best networks in the country. Within the first week of the announcement, over 400 members signed up for service.
Fiber networks not only provide high-speed Internet service, but also create opportunities to innovate. Cities have used fiber to improve traffic management, electrical systems, and public safety systems. Ouachita Electric’s investment could enable many of these innovations, but they are starting with smart meters.
Complementary Benefits
With real-time sensors, these smart meters monitor power quality and can deliver notifications of power outages. They form part of a smart grid system that improves monitoring and management of the overall electric power system, resulting in power savings and lower costs.
In an April 2012 report, ILSR explained the benefits of the smart grid owned by Chattanooga municipal utility EPB in reducing the time customers are without power:
“EPB credits the smart grid automation with preventing 2.4 million customer minutes of interrupted service during the 2011 tornadoes alone. As of Feb 29, EPB reported that its fiber network had saved 5 million customer minutes interrupted since July 1, 2011 — an average of 30 minutes per customer.“
Chattanooga’s smart grid again proved its worth during the July 2012 storms that caused regional power outages. EPB and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s case study found that the smart grid reduced customer outage time by 55% and customer costs by 33%. In that one day alone, the smart grid saved the city utility more than $1 million in the expected overtime costs for restoring service.
A 2017 publication by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University estimated that the EPB smart grid also provides indirect benefits of $43.5 million annually. That number only includes cost savings from quickly detecting failing equipment and isolating potential problems. EPB also directly saves at least $9.6 million with the new sensors — from catching power theft to better regulating power purchasing.
Additionally, the Chattanooga EPB smart grid actually prevented a house fire, in 2014. Thanks to the real-time information from the smart meter, the municipal electric utility sent a nearby employee to check out an anomaly. It turned out to be a fire in the bushes near the back door of a home. The employee put out the fire and fixed the electric line all before the family came home from church. This would not have been possible without the community fiber network supporting high-speed communication between the meter and the utility.
Ouachita Electric’s decision to invest in the fiber network means the co-op’s members will be well-connected and well-served. Members will save money and conserve energy with the smart meters, and they will have access to some of the most reliable, highest-speed Internet service in the entire country.
What’s Next
Ouachita Electric has cemented its status as a pioneer in boosting access to energy programs and broadband, but it shouldn’t be an outlier. The co-op’s attentiveness to its member-owners’ needs spotlights opportunities to introduce well-designed initiatives that plug gaps in the local economy. It’s a formula that should attract all co-ops, designed with democratic ideals in mind.
These initiatives are a set of powerful tools to address low member-owner engagement that plagues rural utilities nationwide. With trailblazers like Ouachita modeling real-world initiatives that deliver measurable results, other co-ops and their member-owners face a substantially lower barrier to pitching and implementing similar efforts, and to cash in on the robust — and proven — potential of energy savings and Internet access.
For timely updates, follow Karlee Weinmann on Twitter or get the Energy Democracy weekly or Community Broadband Networks weekly update.
Executive Summary: ICT Solutions for 21st Century Challenges
Since 2008, the Global e-Sustainability Initiative has been researching the role Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can play in cutting global CO2e emissions and promoting a more sustainable society. This is our third report in that effort and it is based on detailed modeling that, for the first time, also quantifies the far-reaching social and economic benefits of ICT.
The findings are profound.
As ICT has become faster, cheaper and more accessible globally, our report highlights its potential to generate powerful environmental, economic and social benefits beyond what we envisioned as recently as two years ago. Our findings show an ICT-enabled world that is cleaner, healthier and more prosperous, with greater opportunities for individuals everywhere. Our major findings are as follows:
ICT can enable a 20% reduction of global CO2e emissions by 2030, holding emissions at 2015 levels. This means we can potentially avoid the tradeoff between economic prosperity and environmental protection.
ICT emissions as a percentage of global emissions will decrease over time. Our research shows the ICT sector’s emissions “footprint” is expected to decrease to 1.97% of global emissions by 2030,
compared to 2.3% in 2020, which our previous report predicted. Furthermore, the emissions avoided through the use of ICT are nearly ten times greater than the emissions generated by deploying it.
ICT offers significant environmental benefits in addition to reducing carbon emissions. The most substantial benefits identified by this study include increasing agricultural crop yields by 30%, saving over 300 trillion liters of water and saving 25 billion barrels of oil per year.
An assessment of eight economic sectors – mobility & logistics, manufacturing, food, buildings, energy, work & business, health and learning – shows that ICT could generate over $11 trillion in
economic benefits per year by 2030, the equivalent of China’s expected annual GDP in 2015.
ICT will connect 2.5 billion extra people to the “knowledge economy” by 2030, giving 1.6 billion more people access to healthcare and half a billion more people access to e-learning tools.
Worldwide growth of the digital economy continues to accelerate, providing the scale necessary to drive greater connectivity and new, disruptive business models. And, as opposed to the old production-line economy, individuals are firmly at the center of this process.
In our view, three stakeholder groups hold the key to accelerating the widespread adoption of ICT solutions: policymakers, business leaders and consumers. We have developed recommendations for action for each in the final section of the report.
What follows is a summary of each of these major findings and recommendations for realizing the full potential of ICT.
Figure 1 illustrates the contribution to global emissions mitigation of the main sectors we have examined in this report. The total emissions mitigation enabled by ICT alone would be enough to hold emissions at their current level3. ICT emissions as a percentage of global emissions will decrease over time. In our 2008 report, SMART2020, we estimated that the ICT sector’s emissions would reach 1.43Gt CO2e by 2020, which would represent 2.7% of global emissions. Five years later, our SMARTer2020 report revised that forecast down to 1.27Gt, representing 2.3% of global emissions. The revised estimates were based on actual energy efficiencies realized between 2008 and 2012 as well as on updated data. In this study, we predict a further decrease, with ICT’s own footprint expected to reach 1.25Gt CO2e in 2030, or 1.97% of global emissions. Furthermore, our modeling shows that the 12Gt CO2e avoided through the use of ICT solutions is nearly 10 times higher than ICT’s expected footprint in 2030 (see Figure 2).
Our research shows that the decrease in the ICT sector’s footprint is due to a range of investments companies in the sector have been making to reduce their emissions and to the expected improvements in the efficiency of ICT devices. ICT offers significant environmental benefits in addition to reducing carbon emissions. ICT also offers other significant additional environmental benefits like spurring higher agricultural yields and reducing the consumption of scarce resources. By 2030, the most substantial additional environmental benefits identified by this study include:
- Increasing agricultural crop yields by 30%, or close to 900kg per hectare per year;
- Saving over 300 trillion liters of water per year, mostly from smarter agricultural practices; and
- Saving 25 billion barrels of oil per year.
- An assessment of eight economic sectors – mobility & logistics, manufacturing, food, buildings, energy, work & business, health and learning – shows that ICT could generate over $11 trillion in economic benefits per year by 2030.
ICT is transforming all aspects of the economy, but our research has found that the following eight sectors will deliver the most significant ICT-enabled sustainability benefits to the global economy, generating over $11 trillion in sustainable benefits, slightly greater than China’s expected annual GDP for 20154 .
ENERGY ICT CAN ENABLE THE INTEGRATION OF RENEWABLES ONTO THE GRID, IMPROVE EFFICIENCY AND HEIGHTEN TRANSPARENCY. Smart grids, analytics solutions and advanced energy management systems can abate 1.8Gt CO2e and generate $0.8 trillion in new revenue opportunities.
FOOD ICT CAN HELP RAISE PRODUCTIVITY AND REDUCE FOOD WASTE. Smart agriculture will boost yields by 30%, avoid 20% of food waste and could deliver economic benefits worth $1.9 trillion. At the same time, smart agriculture could reduce water needs by 250 trillion liters and abate 2.0Gt CO2e.
HEALTH ICT WILL PUT “A DOCTOR IN YOUR POCKET,” ALLOWING USERS TO MANAGE THEIR OWN HEALTH VIA THEIR SMART DEVICE. ICT could deliver e-health services to 1.6 billion people across the developing and developed world.
LEARNING ICT CAN MAKE EDUCATION ACCESSIBLE, ENGAGING, FLEXIBLE AND AFFORDABLE We expect to see 450 million e-learning participants in 2030, helping to raise incomes by 11% on average per e-degree.
BUILDINGS ICT WILL INCREASE COMFORT AND REDUCE ENERGY AND WATER BILLS. Smart building solutions could cut 2.0Gt CO2e from the housing sector, reducing energy costs by $0.4 trillion and creating revenue opportunities of $0.4 trillion.
MOBILITY & LOGISTICS ICT CAN HELP EVERYONE REACH THEIR DESTINATIONS FASTER, CHEAPER AND SAFER. Real-time traffic information, smart logistics, intelligent lighting and other ICT enabled solutions could abate 3.6Gt CO2e, including abatement from avoided travel.
WORK & BUSINESS ICT-ENABLED TELECOMMUTING AND VIRTUAL CONFERENCING CAN SAVE EMPLOYEES TIME AND MONEY Additional revenues from e-commerce could total $1.8 trillion and e-work could add $0.5 trillion while freeing up 100 hours per e-worker annually.
MANUFACTURING ICT WILL PLACE THE CUSTOMER AT THE CENTER OF A USER FOCUSED SERVICE, CUTTING RESOURCE INPUTS AT THE SAME TIME Smart manufacturing, including virtual manufacturing, customer centric production, circular supply chains and smart services could abate 2.7Gt CO2e. Furthermore, we estimate that $6.5 trillion of additional revenues will flow from ICT-enabled services in 2030 (see Figure 3): nearly half a trillion dollars from the 2.5 billion people newly connected to the digital economy, plus $1.6 trillion from other ICT-services. ICT-enabled services from other sectors will contribute an additional $4.5 trillion of revenues from increased agricultural yields, expanded e-commerce offerings, smart energy solutions and more. ICT could also cut total economic costs across the sectors by $4.9 trillion: $1.2 trillion from reduced electricity expenditure, $1.1 trillion from reduced fuel expenditure and $2.6 trillion from various other opportunities including savings on tuition, real estate and water.
ICT will connect 2.5 billion additional people to the “knowledge economy” by 2030. The ICT-enabled economy of 2030 will not only be cleaner and more prosperous, but will support a better quality of life. We believe ICT has the power to transform lives and to put the individual at the heart of the new knowledge economy. Our modeling finds that an additional 2.5 billion people will be connected to ICT by 2030. Global ICT access could bring e-healthcare solutions to 1.6 billion people across the world and help half-a-billion people gain access to quality, affordable education through e-learning. We believe e-learning solutions alone have the potential to raise incomes by 11% on average per e-degree, creating more than $0.5 trillion in additional annual income by 2030. Overall, the benefits ICT can deliver at a personal level are threefold: reduced costs, higher incomes and greater convenience. These benefits are particularly meaningful to disadvantaged or remote communities where ICT could help pensioners with limited mobility to access healthcare at home via e-health solutions, or provide a smallholder farmer in rural Kenya with access to global crop, weather and market data, boosting his or her income, raising yield and cutting resource-use and associated emissions. Similarly, our research shows that e-working solutions can boost the productivity of tele-workers in all parts of the world, giving them back an average of 100 hours a year to spend with their friends and family (250 billion hours across the global economy in total). Worldwide growth of the digital economy continues to accelerate, providing the scale necessary to drive greater connectivity and new, disruptive business models. Since our last report, SMARTer2020 published in 2012, several major developments have converged to create a genuine prospect for the digital economy to take-off: User Centricity: One of the major differences between the new, digital, economy and the old is the role and power of the customer as an individual. No longer at the end of an impersonal production line, users are now at the center of the process, able to direct and co-create services according to their specific needs, for example via personalized medicine and diagnostics for health conditions, or the customization of a new garment. We illustrate what this means in practice for each of the eight sectors later in the report. Number of Connected Devices: In 2015, “digital connectivity” has fundamentally changed. Internet access and smart phone ownership are at much higher levels and the number of connected devices is expected to grow to 100 billion by 20305 . New Business Models: The business case for ICT-enabled business models is now stronger than ever. That wasn’t as clear at the time of our last report. Digital disruptors like Uber and AirBnB have grown into multi-billion dollar businesses and 61% of c-suite executives interviewed by Accenture emphasized the revenue opportunities presented by digital investments6 .
Finally, as the technology-fluent millennial generation grows more affluent and demands more flexibility from the goods and services its members buy, opportunities abound for organizations to respond in ever more innovative ways. Recommendations This new research demonstrates that ICT has the potential to create a more hopeful and prosperous future, putting the citizen at the heart of a sustainable, digital economy. In our view, three stakeholder groups hold the key to accelerating the widespread adoption of ICT solutions: policymakers, business leaders and consumers. We have developed recommendations for action for each in the final section of the report. Policymakers • Set and enforce global and national emissions targets and recognize ICT solutions as a core tool to securing continued economic growth under these constraints. • Incentivize investments in infrastructure geared to connecting the unconnected and enable more people, across all income segments, to gain access to ICT. • Establish a fair, balanced and consistent regulatory approach to ICT that promotes innovation and investment, protects intellectual property rights and ensures consumer privacy and security. Business Leaders • Drive investments in ICT uptake and cooperate with others in your sector. • Explore ICT-enabled revenue and cost-saving opportunities and set bold sustainability targets to harness opportunities and prepare for tighter emissions regulation. Consumers • Get ready to “think digital” and be willing to try innovative ways of going about work and life. • Use ICT to tailor services to your specific needs, whether that be in education, healthcare, mobility or commerce. • Use your buying power to encourage the businesses and public services that are rolling out sustainable ICT-enabled services to do more. The full report is available at http://smarter2030.gesi.org Please note: As with any research program looking to produce a viable forecast for a 15-year horizon, our modeling is open to uncertainties and contingencies. We have tried to make our assumptions and the technical and policy requirements on which they rest as clear as possible (please see the appendix for further information) but we are fully aware that our scenarios remain only one of a broad range of possible trajectories.
The full report is available at http://smarter2030.gesi.org.
ICT has the potential to enable a 20% reduction of global CO2e emissions by 2030, holding emissions at 2015 levels. In 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published
a report presenting the culmination of its research into the causes of climate change and its impact on the global ecosystem. The report found that if greenhouse gas emissions continued at their current rate, the world would significantly miss its target of holding global average temperature increases to less than 2°C.
The IPCC concluded that a “business as usual” scenario would see temperature increases of between 2.6 and 4.8°C by the end of the century – an unhealthy scenario for our planet and quality of life. The seemingly intractable problem, though, is that the global economy has so far failed to decouple economic growth from emissions growth. The historical trend holds that for every 1% increase in global GDP, CO2e emissions have risen by approximately 0.5%1 and resource intensity by 0.4%2. The world seems caught in a bind, having to choose between economic prosperity and
environmental protection.
We have found that by rolling out identified ICT solutions across the global economy, total global emissions of CO2e could be cut by 12Gt by 2030, promoting a path to sustainable growth.
