Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Primer 4: An Introduction to ICT,

Climate Change and Green Growth
A learning resource on ICT for development
for institutions of higher education

Lead Author:
Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

ASIAN AND PACIFIC TRAINING CENTRE FOR INFORMATION

AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY FOR DEVELOPMENT
Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Primer 4: An Introduction to ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth

A learning resource on ICT for development for institutions of higher education

This work is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

The opinions, figures and estimates set forth in this publication are the responsibility of the
authors, and should not necessarily be considered as reflecting the views or carrying the
endorsement of the United Nations.

The designations used and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply
the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations
concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or
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Mention of firm names and commercial products does not imply the endorsement of the
United Nations.

Contact:
United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information
and Communication Technology for Development (UN-APCICT/ESCAP)
5th Floor G-Tower, 175 Art center daero,
Yeonsu-gu, Incheon City
Republic of Korea

Tel: 82 32 458 6650

Fax: 82 32 458 6691
E-mail: info@unapcict.org
http://www.unapcict.org

Copyright © UN-APCICT/ESCAP 2013

ISBN: 978-89-960467-4-5(94060)

Design and Layout: Scand-Media Corp., Ltd.

Printed in: Republic of Korea
FOREWORD

The importance of youth and its role in helping to build our future society cannot be understated.
Every generation comes to a point where it must invest in its youth to lead society into the future.
The United Nations clearly understands that only through the enthusiasm and energy of youth
will the accomplishments of our generation be sustained and furthered in the next.

The global community, through its shared commitment to sustainable development, has
accomplished much over the past decades. Though much work is still to be done to fully meet
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, there are many accomplishments to be
acknowledged, achieved through common purpose.

Our world today is moved by the rapid development of information and communications
technologies (ICTs). Technologies, best understood as a means of better communication,
improved processing and exchange of information, now impact every aspect of our lives,
constantly revolutionizing the way we communicate with each other, comprehend our
environments, and interact with government.

ICTs have played an important role in fostering improved connectivity as well as socio-economic
development throughout the world, including the Asia and Pacific region. ICTs have provided the
region’s population with new opportunities and resources; e-Government extends the reach of
public services, social media provides voices to those social groups most often marginalized,
e-Health brings medical practitioners to rural communities and online learning provides access
to education for those outside traditional hubs of learning.

However, considerable inequalities in terms of ICT infrastructure, connectivity and know-how still
exist and inhibit the potential benefits of ICTs from being adequately leveraged. Access to ICTs
is not uniform across regions, countries and communities, with many significant discrepancies
existing between neighboring regions and the social groups within them. Indeed, the digital
divide in Asia and the Pacific is still seen to be one of the widest in the world. This is evidenced
by the fact that countries within the region are placed across the whole spectrum of the global
ICT Development Index ranking. Despite the impressive technological breakthroughs and
commitments of many key players in the region, access to basic communication is still not
assured for all.

In order to fully bridge the digital divide and realize the full potential of ICTs, a requisite level of
human resources and institutional capacity must first exist. Towards this end, the Asia and Pacific
Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT)
was established as a regional institute of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific (UN/ESCAP) on 16 June 2006 with the mandate to strengthen the
efforts of the 62 ESCAP member and associate member countries to use ICT for their socio-
economic development through human and institutional capacity development. APCICT’s
mandate responds to the Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action of the World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS), which states that: “Each person should have the opportunity
to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge in order to understand, participate actively in,
and benefit fully from, the Information Society and the knowledge economy.”

Since inception, APCICT has strived tirelessly to develop the requisite set of ICT knowledge
and skills among government officials and senior development stakeholders through numerous
thematic and programmatic initiatives. APCICT has also indentified the need to build ICT capacity
in the next generation of government officials and development stakeholders, if the Asia-Pacific
region’s development achievements are to be sustained.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 3

 However, a gap currently exists in terms of a well designed, instructional sound package for
the capacity building of today’s youth—the leaders of tomorrow. Understanding the need to
bridge this gap, APCICT has developed the “Turning Today’s Youth into Tomorrow’s Leaders”
programme, which aims to develop requisite ICT capacity among the leaders and workforce
of the next generation.

ESCAP welcomes APCICT’s efforts to empower the youth of the Asia-Pacific region and build
their ICT for development capacity through the various elements of the programme, and in
particular “The Primer Series on ICTD for Youth”; a core curriculum for university students that
will provide Twenty-First Century skills for the knowledge society, where ICTs are an intrinsic
part of everyday life. With over 56 million students enrolled in institutions of higher learning in
Asia and the Pacific alone, the Primer Series is indeed a timely resource, and will support the
spirit of the WSIS Declaration of Principles which recognizes that “young people are the future
workforce and leading creators and earliest adopters of ICTs. They must therefore be empowered
as learners, developers, contributors, entrepreneurs and decision-makers.”

Noeleen Heyzer, Ph.D.

Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
and Executive Secretary of ESCAP
December 2013

4 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

PREFACE

The potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a powerful tool to

enable inclusive and sustainable development has long been recognized. ICTs can enhance
development interventions across all sectors by bridging geographical distance, improving
public service delivery and business operations, and increasing access to information and
transparency. As important as the role of ICTs is in achieving development goals, it is all the
more critical that people know how to put ICTs to the right use to maximize its transformative
impact on people’s lives.

As today’s youth will go on to become leaders in the future, sensitizing the youth to how ICTs
can be effectively used to advance development, and empowering them to be able to use
the ICTs in their respective fields of career in the future is an investment which will yield long-
term dividends. As such, youth should be recognized as one of the key beneficiaries of ICT
for development (ICTD) human capacity building. Recognizing this need, APCICT initiated
“Turning Today’s Youth into Tomorrow’s Leaders (TTYTL)”, a capacity-building programme
for youth on ICTD, and developed the “Primer Series on ICTD for Youth” under the TTYTL
as a resource to help enhance coverage of ICTD content in undergraduate and graduate
programmes at universities in the Asia-Pacific region.

Since its launch in February 2012, the “Primer Series on ICTD for Youth” has seen a rapid
uptake across Asia and the Pacific region. Available in five languages, it has been adopted and
utilized in 13 countries and 2 sub-regions, reaching over 90 universities. Building on the success
of the first issue of the Primer Series entitled “An Introduction to ICT for Development” which
provided a comprehensive understanding on the linkages between ICT and development,
APCICT has developed the second (Project Management and ICTD), third (ICT for Disaster
Risk Management), and fourth (ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth) issues in 2013 on
more specific ICTD topics to meet the growing demand from the member countries for ICTD
resources geared towards youth.
The fourth issue of the Primer Series entitled “ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth”
focuses on the role of ICT in dealing with climate change and promoting green growth, an
issue of increasing importance in recent years. In particular, according to the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), Asia-Pacific is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate
change and impacts are likely to become more severe in the future. Rising temperatures and
extreme weather events have led to loss of crop yield in many countries, while sea level rise
is likely to cause significant losses of coastal ecosystems, and put millions of people living in
coastal areas at risk.

This Primer introduces students to the role of ICT in climate change adaptation and mitigation
with case studies of ICT applications. It also examines how ICTs can be applied to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, and introduces the role of ICTs in promoting Green Growth.
This Primer also touches upon the role of ICT in disaster risk management (DRM) focusing
on some new ICT-based applications that are not dealt with in Primer 3, providing a more
comprehensive overview of the role of ICT in DRM.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 5

 A comprehensive and demand-driven approach has marked the entire process of developing
this Primer Series. A series of needs assessment surveys, consultation meetings, and
workshops have been undertaken with various stakeholders to better understand the needs of
the member countries and thus make the Primer Series as relevant as possible. Throughout,
APCICT has received generous support from the stakeholders from around the region. I
would like to take this opportunity to thank all the participants of the meetings and workshops
organized towards developing this fourth issue of the Primer Series for providing their valuable
feedback to help strengthen ICTD education in Asia and the Pacific.

I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center
(ADPC) for its valuable partnership in bringing out a useful resource for youth on this pertinent
topic. I also wish to thank Christine Apikul for editing this Primer Series. I would also like
to acknowledge and appreciate APCICT’s partners who participated in multiple rounds of
the review of the manuscript, and contributed to enhancing the relevance and quality of this
publication. Lastly, I would like to thank the Korea International Cooperation Agency for its
generous financial support for the development of this Primer Series.

I sincerely hope that the Primer Series will serve as a valuable resource that will enhance the
youth’s understanding of the role of ICT in addressing climate change and promoting green
growth in our region, and contribute to creating a cadre of future leaders with the ability to
leverage ICTs for inclusive and sustainable development.

Hyeun-Suk Rhee, Ph.D.

Director
UN-APCICT/ESCAP

6 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

PRIMER 4: An Introduction to ICT,
Climate Change and Green Growth

This Primer addresses the role that information and communication technology (ICT) can play
in enhancing the ability and capacity of humans to deal with the impact of climate change and
contribute to sustainable development. The principle of sustainable development is an important
guide to ensure that the use of ICT to tackle climate change effects is done in a way that does
not impact on the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

There are two main policy responses to climate change: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation
addresses the root causes, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while adaptation seeks
to lower the risks posed by the consequences of climatic change. Both approaches will be
necessary, because even if emissions are dramatically decreased in the next decade, adaptation
will still be needed to deal with the global changes that have already been set in motion.

Note that climate change mitigation is not the same as disaster mitigation. Climate change
mitigation includes actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Disaster risk mitigation is the
lessening or limitation of the impact of hazards such as floods and earthquakes. It includes
the implementation of structural measures (e.g. flood gates) and non-structural measures (e.g.
land-use planning) so that when a disaster strikes, its impact on communities is lessened.

This Primer focuses on the role that ICT can play in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Since climate and the environment are linked, this Primer also considers the role of ICT in
helping humans understand the environment that surrounds them, which is a prerequisite for
tackling the problems of climate change.

While the Primer also considers the role of ICT in and disaster risk management (DRM), it
does so in regards to some new ICT-based applications that are not covered in Primer 3, which
provides a comprehensive overview of the role of ICT in DRM.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 7

 LEARNING Objectives
The Primer aims to:

• Introduce the key concepts and issues in climate change, Green Growth and ICT;

• Foster a better understanding of how ICTs can be used to adapt to climate change effects,
with case studies of ICT applications;

• Foster a better understanding of how ICTs can be used to achieve reductions in greenhouse
gas emissions, with case studies of ICT applications; and

• Provide a Green Growth-oriented approach to development, and discuss the role of the
ICT sector in promoting Green Growth.

Learning Outcomes
After reading this Primer, students will be equipped with the basic awareness of climate change
concepts, and exposed to the potential use of ICT for climate change adaptation, climate change
mitigation and Green Growth. Students will be able to utilize this as a context and potential in
whatever field or profession they decide to pursue.

Specifically, this Primer provides students with:

• Conceptual frameworks to understand the processes of climate change adaptation, climate

change mitigation and Green Growth, and the role of information and ICT in these processes.

• Broad knowledge and skills to help in the effective planning, development and implementation
of relevant ICT applications.

Something To Do

In preparation for taking this Primer, complete one or more of the tasks below:

• Read Our Common Future, the report of the World Commission on Environment
and Development (WCED) published in 1987,1 and related reports on sustainable
development.
• Read the ICTs for e-Environment report published by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU).2 This report provides an overview of the role
that ICTs play in environmental observation, interaction and management.
• Read the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) published in 2007.3
• Be familiar with the most recent United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) national communications prepared by your country.

1 WCED, Our Common Future, Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Available from
http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm.
2 ITU, ICTs for e-Environment. Guidelines for developing countries with a focus on climate change (Geneva, ITU, 2008). Available
from http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/app/docs/itu-icts-for-e-environment.pdf.
3 See also http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_and_data_reports.shtml.

8 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

How to Use this Primer

This primer introduces various aspects and issues in climate change, and explores how ICT
applications are helping us to adapt to climate change consequence, reduce greenhouse gases,
and go towards better pathways to development.

The primer is divided into five chapters. Each section begins with a set of learning objectives
and outcomes against which readers can assess their own progress. Each chapter of the primer
contains practical exercises and multiple choice questions to help readers check that they have
understood the discussions. The practical exercises are intended to promote an interactive
learning process among students and faculty, and encourage readers to think reflectively on
the issues presented.

Case studies are also provided throughout the primer. These are intended for discussion and
analysis, particularly in terms of the extent to which the key concepts and principles presented
in the primer work in real-world projects and programmes. Case study analysis and assignments
are intrinsic to the learning process and should be taken with the seriousness they merit.

In addition, the primer contains short “Youth In Action” synopses of what young people have
done or can do using ICTs to tackle climate change issues. The intention of these synopses is
to inspire students to go beyond classroom learning.

This primer can be used by students as basic material to understand the various aspects and
issues in ICT for climate change adaptation and mitigation, and green growth. The faculty can
use this primer as materials for teaching. The faculty can also use this primer as materials to
incorporate ICT for climate change adaptation and mitigation, and green growth in university
curricula.

Educators are invited to enhance and modify the contents provided in this primer, and/or
supplement these with case studies, assignments and questions that they think will be more
effective and meaningful to the students. All primers are released under the Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 License, which means that we encourage you to copy, distribute and adapt the
primer provided you attribute the United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information
and Communication Technology for Development (UN-APCICT).

Educators may wish to use the template provided below for case study development. Faculties
are encouraged to improve on the template or rework it as per their own needs.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 9

 Suggested template for case studies on ICT for climate change
adaptation and mitigation (maximum 2,000 words)
Title of case study
Stakeholders in the case study
Location (community/city/district/province
and country)
Project start date and duration
Overview A summary of the case study
Description • Why was this project developed?
• What is the objectives of the project?
• What is the project context? (policy
environment, economic and social
conditions, etc.)
• What are the strengths (e.g.
resources and capacities available)
and weaknesses (e.g. vulnerable
conditions) of the project?
• What are the external opportunities and
threats that affect the project?
• What is the expected results of the
project?
• What are the achievements and
impacts
• What are the methodologies and tools
used in the project?
• How were ICTs applied in the project?
Project management • How was the project managed? By
whom?
• What were the good practices, lessons
learned and recommendations for
future actions
Questions that ask readers to reflect on the
extent to which the case study applies to
their situation and what they will do similarly
or differently
Source and useful references for further • Reports and publications related to the
information case study
• Images or videos related to the case
study
• Website
• Contact information (email, phone,
address)

10 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Educators are encouraged to explore the subject matter with their students, draw on their own
discipline, and identify linkages to climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, and
green growth. Here are some possible ideas: Those in the natural sciences can guide students
in the development of field monitoring stations to measure climate variables, the environment,
or climate-related hazards. Those in the social sciences can guide students in the use of ICTs to
change attitudes, behaviour or cultural norms to address the impact of climate change. Those in
the arts and humanities can guide students in the promotion of dialogue about climate change
and green growth using electronic media. Those in the applied fields can guide students in the
development of inventions, and organizational or industrial processes consistent with green
growth principles.

Finally, educators and students alike are encouraged to enlist in the APCICT Virtual Academy
(http://e-learning.unapcict.org) and interact with others who have started their journeys to a
green and sustainable future.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 11

 Table of Contents

Foreword 3
Preface 5
PRIMER 4:An Introduction to ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 7
Learning Objectives 8
Learning Outcomes 8
How to Use this Primer 9
List of Case Studies 13
List of Figures 13
List of Tables 13
Acronyms 14
List of Icons 15

1. An Introduction to Climate Change and Green Growth 16

1.1 Climate Variability and Climate Change 16
1.2 Adaptation and Resilience 19
1.3 Greenhouse Gases, their Effects and Mitigation 21
1.4 Green Growth as a Strategy for Economic Growth and Sustainable
Development 23

2. ICT Trends and their Implications for Tackling Climate Change 26

2.1 Information Needs in Adaptation and Mitigation 26
2.2 Communication on Climate Change 27
2.3 Scope and Definition of ICTs 29
2.4 ICT Trends and their Implications for Tackling Climate Change 29
2.5 e-Waste and Recycling 33
2.6 Green Computing 36

3. ICT Applications for Adapting to Climate Change 39

3.1 The Need to Adapt to Climate Change 39
3.2 Facilitating Climate Change Observation 42
3.3 Modelling Climate Change 43
3.4 Facilitating Climate Change Adaptation in Vulnerable Sectors 44
3.5 Facilitating Adaptive Learning 50

4. ICT Applications for Mitigating Climate Change 55

4.1 The Need to Mitigate Climate Change 55
4.2 Facilitating Environmental Observation 55
4.3 Enhancing the Efficient Use of Energy 58
4.4 Reducing GHG Emissions through Clean Technologies and Dematerialization 59
4.5 The SMART Transformation 64

5. ICT for GreenGrowth and Sustainable Development 77

5.1 What is Green Growth 77
5.2 What Drives the Move to Green Growth 77
5.3 Role of ICTs in Achieving Green Growth 79

Conclusion 88
Summary 89
Glossary 90
Further Reading 92

12 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

List of Case Studies

Case Study 1. Raising local participation at global climate change forums with
telepresence 32
Case Study 2. WEEE Recycle in India 35
Case Study 3. Global precipitation measurement 43
Case Study 4. The Nepal Climate Portal 44
Case Study 5. CRiSTAL, the community-based risk screening tool 45
Case Study 6. Assessing climate change impacts on agriculture 46
Case Study 7. Urban Services Monitoring Systems 48
Case Study 8. Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre seasonal forecasting 49
Case Study 9. Monitoring and early warning of GLOF from Lake Sarez 50
Case Study 10. The Global Climate Observing System 56
Case Study 11. Measuring carbon storage by forests in Nepal 57
Case Study 12. Small hydropower automatic control 58
Case Study 13. High-level government officials in Orissa use videoconferencing for
meetings 61
Case Study 14. Project Panchdeep, India 62
Case Study 15. The Philippines is leading the way in call centres 63
Case Study 16. The Shanghai Tower 66
Case Study 17. Kuala Lumpur’s integrated transport information system 68
Case Study 18. Thimpu Tech Park 80
Case Study 19. Using earth observation satellites for low-emission climate resilient
development in Maldives 81
Case Study 20. Solar energy in Turkmenistan 82
Case Study 21. China’s SMART grid development 83
Case Study 22. Jeju’s renewable energy micro-grid 84
Case Study 23. Green growth and green procurement in Viet Nam 85
Case Study 24. Integrated stormwater management system in Cebu 86

List of Figures

Figure 1. Regional distribution of the Köppen climate classification system types in Asia 17
Figure 2. Graph showing average global temperature from 1860 to 2000 18
Figure 3. Projected temperature and precipitation changes in 2080-2099 as compared
to the period 1980-1999 19
Figure 4. Illustration of the greenhouse effect 22
Figure 5. Responses to 2010 global survey question on personal actions to reduce
the effects of climate change 28
Figure 6. Green a computer’s entire lifestyle 36
Figure 7. South-East Asia’s vulnerability to extreme climate hazards 40
Figure 8. Projected changes in temperature and precipitation extremes, including
dryness, in Asia 41
Figure 9. Exposure and vulnerability to weather and climate events determine impacts
and the likelihood of disasters 48
Figure 10. Dematerialization: Using less to produce more 59

List of Tables

Table 1. Major Köppen climate categories 17

Table 2. Climate change adaptation and ICT applications 42

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 13

 Acronyms

ACCCRN Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network

ADB Asian Development Bank
AGB Above-Ground Biomass
Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication
APCICT Technology for Development
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
BPAP Business Processing Association of Philippines
BPO Business Process Outsourcing
CAREN Central Asian Research and Education Network
COP Conferences of the Parties
CRiSTAL Community-Based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation and Livelihoods
DRM Disaster Risk Management
DSSAT Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer
EPA Environmental Protection Agency (USA)
ESCAP Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (United Nations)
ESIC Employee State Insurance Corporation (India)
EWS Early Warning System
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GHG Greenhouse Gas
GIS Geographic Information System
GLOF Glacial Lake Outburst Flood
ICIMOD International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
ICT Information and Communication Technology
ICTD Information and Communication Technology for Development
IEA International Energy Agency
International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and
IMPACT Trade
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
IT Information Technology
ITS Intelligent Transportation System
ITU International Telecommunication Union
JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration (USA)
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
PC Personal Computer
R&D Research and Development
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in
REDD Developing Countries
RFID Radio-Frequency Identification Technologies
SMART Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology
SMEs Small and Medium Enterprises
Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to
SREX Advance Climate Change Adaptation
TTP Thimphu Tech Park (Bhutan)

14 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

UN United Nations
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
USA United States of America
USB Universal Serial Bus
WCED World Commission on Environment and Development
WMO World Meteorological Organization
WSN Wireless Sensor Network
WWF World Wide Fund for Nature

List of Icons

Case Study

Points To Remember

Something To Do

Questions To Think About

Test Yourself

Youth In Action Note

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 15

 1. An introduction to climate
change and green growth

Objectives:
• Present an overview of what climate change is and why it is important; and
• Explain the concepts of climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation
and Green Growth.

“Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.” – Mark Twain

1.1 Climate Variability and Climate Change

People are generally familiar with the weather, and know it with words such as
sunny, rainy, windy, snowing and the like.4 The weather is a description of the
state of the atmosphere at a given time and place. It is measured through its
conditions such as temperature, humidity, air pressure, precipitation and wind
speed.
 
In contrast, climate is the average weather conditions for a site measured over a long time
period of 30 years. Like the cartoon shows, for something extreme like a desert climate, one
can expect the weather to be fairly constant.5 In other words, climate is the summary of a 30-
year story about the weather in a particular place. Climate descriptions can be made specific
for a local area, a region or for the whole world.

Areas with consistent climates are grouped together as climate regions based on monthly
temperatures, monthly precipitation and precipitation values. The regions are classified into
six major zones, described briefly in table 1.

4 Image from http://www.eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/images/page1a_weather_sm.jpg.

5 Image from http://cartoonsy.com/cartoons/forecast-desert-wife-husband-radio-weather-3807.

16 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Table 1. Major Köppen climate categories

A – Tropical moist • Very warm. Monthly average temperatures above 18°C

• High precipitation
B – Dry • Little precipitation during most of the year
• Evaporation exceeds precipitation

C – Moist mid-latitude • Summer temperatures are warm to hot and winters are
with mild winters mild
• Coldest month has an average temperature between 18°C
and -3°C
D – Moist mid-latitude • Summer temperatures are warm and winters are cold
with cold winters • Average temperature of warmest month exceeds 10°C
• Average temperature of coldest months is below -3°C
E – Polar • Very cold winters and summers
• No true summer
• Warmest month has an average temperature below 10°C
H – Highland • Strongly influenced by the effects of altitude

Source: Encyclopedia of Earth, “Köppen Climate Classification System”, updated 10 November 2011.
Available from http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/162263/. See website for a description of all 24 subcategories.

Figure 1 shows the current climate regions of Asia.

Figure 1. Regional distribution of the Köppen climate classification

system types in Asia

Source: http://people.eng.unimelb.edu.au/mpeel/Koppen/Asia.jpg, downloaded on 23 May 2013.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 17

 It is necessary now to highlight an important distinction between two terms—climate variability
and climate change.

Climate variability refers to short-term variation in climate, including daily, seasonal and annual
fluctuations. For example, a place may have a wetter year than usual, a hotter day than usual,
more or less storms than usual, but these may just be part of the current trend and do not
represent climate change. It also includes phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña Southern
Oscillation—related climate events with multi-year cycles that can cause noticeable climate
change in the short term. Natural variability includes extreme weather and climate events, which
are by their nature extremely rare.

Climate change is described as: “A change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g.
by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that
persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer.”6 It refers to the longer-term trends
in average temperatures, especially the long-term warming trend observed by scientists that
is related to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. This
also encompasses changing trends in climate variability, including changes in the frequency
and severity of extreme weather events, and new definitions of “extreme” in any given location.
Figure 2 shows how the global temperature has increased over the past 150 years.

Figure 2. Graph showing average global temperature from 1860 to 2000

Source: IPCC, Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report, 2007.

Over the past decades, climate scientists have developed computer models to predict the
future effects of climate change. This is a difficult task due to the immense complexity of the
global climate system, but as the models become more sophisticated, more factors are taken
into account.

The projections displayed in figure 3 show temperature rises occurring across Asia, particularly
in high latitudes and in areas of high altitude (most obviously the Tibetan Plateau). Precipitation
projections suggest increased precipitation in the north of the continent during the winter, and
significant decreases in South Asia and South-East Asia during the same season.

Studies suggest that climate change can result in shifts in temperatures and precipitation, some
good and some with challenges to environments, livelihoods, health, and to the frequency and
intensity of climate-related natural hazards such as floods and landslides.

6 Christopher B. Field and others, eds., Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change
Adaptation, A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge and
New York, Cambridge University Press, 2012). Available from http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/.

18 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Climate change is related to GHG emissions. The two main sources of GHG emissions are
from: (1) the burning of fossil fuels (e.g. coal, petroleum, natural gas); and (2) the clearing of
carbon sinks in the natural environment, for example through deforestation (i.e. the clearing of
forest and other vegetation that represent an important store of global carbon).

Figure 3. Projected temperature and precipitation changes in 2080-2099 as compared

to the period 1980-1999

Note: From left to right, the graphs show projected annual mean; December, January and February temperatures; June, July and
August temperatures.
Source: IPCC, Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report, 2007.

The response to climate change calls for actions that will either help people and communities
adapt to the climate impacts of a changing environment or mitigate the amount of GHGs released
into the atmosphere. Green Growth is an approach to development that has the potential to
combine goals for climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation and economic growth.

1.2 Adaptation and Resilience

Climate change is expected to generate impacts, both positive and negative. The negative
impacts include the following:

• More people are expected to experience flooding every year due to sea level rise
• Shrinking volumes of mountain snow, glaciers and small ice caps are projected and are
expected to reduce water availability for drinking and hydropower
• Illness and death due to diarrhoea are expected to rise

Adaptation to climate change requires countries to modify their behaviour in order to reduce
the “vulnerability of natural and human systems against actual or perceived climate change

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 19

 effects.”7 Governments and organizations can adapt to climate change by preparing for changing
environmental and climatic conditions before their full impacts are felt by the communities, target
groups, environments and ecosystems.

Resilience is defined as “the ability of a system and its component parts to anticipate, absorb
accommodate, or recover from the effects of a hazardous event in a timely and efficient manner,
including through ensuring the preservation, restoration or improvement of its essential basic
structures and functions.”8 It is a framework being discussed to guide adaptation.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has identified two priorities for adaptation. These are
the establishment of a “world-wide early warning system (EWS) and development support for
poor countries to get access to drought resistant crops.”9 ICTs contribute to achieving both of
these priorities.

Adaptation measures are especially important for developing countries because they must
deal with the immediate impacts of climate change. Many of the world’s poorest populations,
and therefore the people most at risk to climate change, are in developing countries where the
capacity to adapt is generally limited.

Climate change adaptation requires the following:

• A sound understanding of the natural environment and how it is challenged and modified by
climate change over time and space. ICTs are indispensable for environmental observation,
analysis, planning, management and monitoring, which can help policymakers formulate
informed decisions on actions for climate change adaptation.
• Assisting vulnerable communities adapt to existing problems as well as projected climate
changes. This includes livelihood improvement so that people are less at risk from a changing
climate (e.g. modifying agricultural practices), and preparedness for more frequent disasters
and extreme weather events.
• Forest and biodiversity conservation, sustainable land-use management, early warning,
awareness raising and capacity building are central to adaptation. ICTs are used to share
and teach these practices.

7 IPCC, IPCC Glossary Working Group III, 2007. Available from http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg3.htm.
8 IPCC, Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, Special Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2012.
9 Stefan Henningsson, “ICT as a winner in the low carbon economy - enabling energy services for 9 billion people”, presentation
made at the UNFCCC, Copenhagen, Denmark, 8 December 2009. Available from http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_15/side_
events_exhibits/items/5095.php.

20 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Something To Do

Go to the United States Environmental Protection Agency website for a fun quiz
called “Clues of Climate Change” at http://epa.gov/climatestudents/scientists/clues.
html or use the image below.

Instructions: Scientists look in many places to find clues about climate change. For
example, they examine historical records, collect measurements, and observe trends
in temperature, weather patterns, sea level and other features of the environment.
Because there are so many clues from all over the world, scientists say that climate
change is already happening today. Eleven signs of climate change are hidden in
the landscape below. Can you find them all?

Explore the other pages of the website for ideas on developing a similar learning
website for teaching children about climate change adaptation and mitigation.

1.3 Greenhouse Gases, their Effects and Mitigation

Certain gases in the atmosphere, called “greenhouse gases” trap energy from the sun and reflect
it back down to the surface, warming the planet. The ability of the atmosphere to capture and
recycle energy emitted by the Earth surface is known as the greenhouse effect, and without
it, the world would be much colder—around -18˚C. There are also human-made GHGs that
contribute to global warming.10 Water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O),
methane (CH4), and ozone (O3) are the primary GHGs in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Since the industrial revolution began in Europe around 1750, humans have been burning fossil
fuels such as coal, oil and gas for energy, which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Other industrial processes also release other GHGs such as methane and nitrous dioxide. The
presence of higher quantities of these heat-trapping GHGs in the atmosphere is thought to
have caused less solar energy to be radiated back into space, more heat being trapped in the
atmosphere, and an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s surface. This is referred
to as the “enhanced greenhouse effect”.

10 NOAA, “Greenhouse Gases Frequently Asked Questions”. Available from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/gases.html.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 21

 Figure 4. Illustration of the greenhouse effect

Source: Greenpeace, 2005. Available from http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/multimedia/photos/greenhouse_effect/.

The most important contributor is carbon dioxide followed (in descending order) by methane,
chlorofluorocarbons, ozone and nitrous oxide.11

Mitigation refers to: “Technological change and substitution that reduce resource inputs and GHG
emissions per unit of output. Although several social, economic and technological policies would
produce an emission reduction, with respect to climate change, mitigation means implementing
policies to reduce GHG emissions and enhance carbon sinks.”12

Mitigation is important because it directly addresses the root cause of climate change and is
essential for meeting the GHG emission reduction targets required to stabilize global climate
before predicted catastrophic change sets in.

Energy demand and the emission of GHGs are directly linked because fossil fuels are one
of the main contributors to GHG emissions and to the global warming that is associated with
climate change.

At present, countries around the world are consuming energy from fossil fuels at a rate that is
generating alarming amounts of GHGs, resulting in dramatic increases in the temperature of the
earth’s atmosphere as well as perturbations in the climate. The consequences of such dramatic
emissions of GHGs into the atmosphere are predicted by some to be catastrophic. Evidence
to date supports this assertion. There are no simple solutions to this problem. A combination
of solutions needs to be considered.

11 Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences, “Global Warming Facts & Our Future. Causes
of Change. CO2 and Other Greenhouse Gas Variations”, 2010. Available from http://www.koshland-science-museum.org/
exhibitgcc/causes02.jsp.
12 IPCC, IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007, Annex 1: Glossary, 2007. Available from http://www.ipcc.ch/
publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/annex1sglossary-a-d.html.

22 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

While historically, the main source of GHG emissions from fossil fuels has been the developed
countries, this is changing rapidly as emerging economies grow and increase in population
and consumption more rapidly than advanced countries. As these countries become richer, the
drive to a higher standard of living is pushing consumption and driving economic growth, which
in turn is driving the demand for and price of fossil fuel-based energy resources.

Data shows that in 2009, China overtook the USA to become the world’s largest energy user.
Preliminary data from the International Energy Agency (IEA)13 indicate that in 2009, China
consumed about 4 per cent more energy than the USA. Furthermore, the outlook for world
energy demand to 2035 based on the New Policies Scenario of the IEA14 shows the significant
growth in demand from China, whereas in the OECD countries15 growth in energy demand is
largely static.

Climate change mitigation would require:

• Using more efficient energy generation technologies. ICTs can be utilized to improve the
generation, storage and distribution of energy to minimize energy loss.
• Using more energy efficient technologies. ICTs can be used in sectors such as construction
and transportation to plan its processes with a view to minimize energy use.
• Replacing fossil fuels with none or low carbon-emitting energy generating technologies
such as renewable energy technologies or nuclear energy
• Adopting more sustainable natural resource management, and harvesting or extraction
technologies and practices16
• Adopting policies and practices that encourage conservation of energy and natural resource

At the core is the need to be more efficient in the use of energy and natural resources while at
the same time developing non-carbon generating and non-polluting or minimally polluting energy
generating technologies such as those associated with the use of renewable energy sources
(e.g. wind power, solar power, hydro power, wave and tidal power, geothermal power, etc.).

1.4 Green Growth as a Strategy for Economic Growth and

Sustainable Development
In 2008, countries of the Asia Pacific region and from around the world were confronted by
a global economic slowdown that led to a significant increase in the price of energy. Several
countries responded with subsidy programmes to stimulate economic activity, investing in
infrastructure and government services, as well as research and development (R&D) activities.

However, some governments, including in many countries in the Asia Pacific region, realized
that this was an opportunity to simultaneously address the threat of climate change, rapidly
rising energy prices and the insecurity posed by uncertain fossil fuel supplies. These countries
realized that in an energy-challenged world where the risk of severe climate related disruptions
due to GHG emissions is significant, business as usual was not an option. They looked to a
new paradigm for economic development based on the principles of sustainable development:
Green Growth.

13 IEA, World Energy Outlook 2010 (Paris, 2010).

14 Ibid.
15 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is comprised of 34 member countries. They include many
of the world’s most advanced countries but also emerging countries like Mexico, Chile and Turkey. See http://www.oecd.org.
16 UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, Outcome of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on long-term cooperative action under
the Convention, Cancun Agreements of the 2010 Climate Change Conference, Draft decision/CP.16, 2010. Available from
http://unfccc.int/adaptation/cancun_adaptation_framework/items/5852.php.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 23

 Green Growth refers to economic development and growth that that takes into consideration
the need to reduce energy consumption and water use, conserve renewable natural resources,
and limit waste and pollution. It is defined as “economic progress that fosters environmentally
sustainable, low-carbon and socially inclusive development.”17

Points To Remember

• Climate change refers to the shifts in the longer-term trends in temperature, humidity
and precipitation.

• Climate change adaptation is about preparing for changing environmental and

climatic conditions before their full impacts are felt.

• The volume of GHGs has increased since the industrial revolution and is thought to
contribute to climate change. Climate change mitigation is about using appropriate
technology to reduce and absorb emissions.

• Green growth is about pursuing economic progress in ways that are sustainable,
low-carbon and socially inclusive.

Something To Do

Go to http://globalfloodmap.org/ and zoom in on Bangladesh, Viet Nam and Papua

New Guinea. Use the application to see the proportion of its cities that are under
water if the sea level were to rise.

Instructions:

1. Type in the capital city name (Dhaka, Hue, Port Moresby) in the box titled “Find
Your City” to quickly zoom into the country. Each city is represented as a dot,
and the color represents its flood risk.
2. Change the projected sea level rise using buttons marked 6, 18, 100 and 1000
inches.
3. See how the number of blue dots increases as you go from 6 to 1000 inches.

17 United Nations and Asian Development Bank, Green Growth, Resources and Resilience: Environmental Sustainability in Asia
and the Pacific (2012). Available from http://www.unescap.org/esd/environment/flagpubs/GGRAP/documents/Full-Report.pdf.

24 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Test Yourself

1. Look at the map in figure 1. Locate Russia and identify its major climate region. Choices:

A – Tropical moist Hints for all questions:

1. Match the country’s colour to the legend. The first letter
B – Dry
corresponds to the choices.
C – Mild mid-latitude 2. Compare the two periods as to whether their temperatures
D – Severe mid-latitude tended to be above or below
E – Polar the average represented by the horizontal black line.
H – Highland 3. See the definition in Section 1.3.

2. Look at the graph in figure 2. Is it correct to say that the global temperature in the period
1860 to 1910 was cooler than the period 1940 to 2000?

3. Climate change mitigation is about reducing vulnerability to the effects of climate change.
Is the statement true or false?

Questions To Think About

1. Why is it important to study climate?

2. Do you personally worry about polluting the air with GHGs?

3. What are the ways in which your school could be using ICTs to monitor energy
use?

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 25

 2. ICT trends and their implications
for tackling climate change

Objectives:
• Identify the information needs for climate change adaptation and mitigation
• Identify the communication needs for climate change adaptation and mitigation
• Be familiar with important ICTs for climate change adaptation and mitigation, and
Green Growth
• Appreciate the trends in the ICT industry and how these may promote climate
change mitigation and Green Growth

The use of ICTs for environmental management including for climate monitoring is increasing
rapidly as a result of an unprecedented number of relatively recent scientific and technical
innovations. These trends are based on continued innovation and R&D in the areas of digitization
and dematerialization, as well as green computing.

2.1 Information Needs in Adaptation and Mitigation

ICTs can be used to collect and store information on the climate, on emissions, and on climate
change impacts on people and the environment. Information can then be shared among
networks (academic, professional and the general public) to inspire creativity in the devising
of solutions and initiatives to adapt and mitigate. Solutions can be about tapping the beneficial
opportunities of climate change (such as wine-growing in Britain), moderating harm from the
negative impacts, modifying energy production and consumption, optimizing gas-emitting
transportation, and the like.

Information needs identified for such solutions and initiatives are:

• Data about the climate (temperature, humidity rainfall and snowfall) and sea levels
• Data about the environment in general, and GHG emission levels of particular activities
• Data about energy production and consumption
• Characterization of climate change into the future, particularly capturing variables that affect
climate parameters at local scale (such as precipitation and the effects of orography18)
• Characterization of the vulnerability of people, communities and economic sectors to the
negative impacts of climate change and shocks in development
• Analyses of data to discover trends in climate patterns and the environment, so that targets
can be set for adaptation, mitigation and Green Growth
• Skills and knowledge sets required for adapting to climate change and mitigating GHG
emissions

Chapters 3 to 5 will be providing discussion and examples of how ICTs can help to collect data,
and how the datasets may be utilized for adaptation, mitigation and Green Growth initiatives.

18 Orography is the study of mountain ranges and elevated land masses.

26 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

2.2 Communication on Climate Change
“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” Frank R. Pierson

The information producers are usually

a specialized group of meteorologists,
hydrologists, climatologists and social
scientists who study hydro-meteorological
processes, modeling, data collection and
analysis of how climate changes might
influence human systems. End users
are those who need climate information
for operational and strategic purposes.
These include city planners, water and
sanitation engineers, disaster managers,
service providers, business owners, urban
dwellers rich and poor, and children. The
understanding of the same phenomena by
the two groups may be very different.

Communication of the impacts of climate

 
change is important to create and sustain awareness among the information end users, support
adaptation and decisions, and build capacity for action based on this information.

The “Hierarchy of Effects” model describes that behavioral change can be caused at three stages:

• Knowledge refers to what people learn, believe, are aware of, remember and recognize.
• Attitude refers to how people feel about something, whether something is liked or disliked,
and whether something is evaluated positively or negatively.
• Practice refers to behaviour, and is the observable or tangible part of the model.

Knowledge is theorized to provide the building blocks for attitude, and attitude in turn is the
building block for action. Implicit here is the assumption that people are rational: each person
first learns, then forms an attitude, then acts or not.

What then do people know and do about climate change? The 2010 global survey by Synovate
(a global market research firm) conducted with over 13,000 respondents in 18 countries had
some interesting findings (see figure 5):

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 27

 Figure 5. Responses to 2010 global survey question on personal actions to reduce the
effects of climate change

Source: Synovate.

• Only 30% of the respondents were “very concerned” about climate change, while 39%
were “somewhat concerned”.
• When asked what they have personally done to help reduce the effects of climate change,
the most frequent answers were: saved electricity (76%), reduced water consumption (69%),
reduced use of packaging (67%), recycled waste (67%), bought energy-efficient devices
(57%), and informed themselves about climate change (55%).
• In most countries, more women than men buy ecological products, and more elderly than
youth would recycle and buy ecological products.

Synovate also annually ran the Young Asians study from 2007 to 2010 and found the following
percentage of youth who believe that they have the biggest say and are able to influence
household purchase decisions for specific items:

• 84% for snack food, candy, chocolates and soft drinks

• 72% for clothing and apparel
• 70% for choice of venues among fast-food outlets and quick service restaurants

When asked how they felt regarding the effects of climate change, young people answered
as follows:

• 67% of Asia’s 8-24 year olds said that they were concerned about the effects of climate change.
• Most concerned are the Filipinos (87%), Thais (81%), Hong Kongers (78%), and Koreans
(75%).
• Less conscious were youth from India (38%), Indonesia (14%) and Malaysia (13%) who
said that they do not believe that the climate is changing.

And have the youth personally taken steps to reduce the effects of climate change?

• 38% had recycled waste and reduced the consumption of plastic bags, electricity, water
and gas.
• 26% purchased green products.

28 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Something To Do

Answer this: What have you personally done to reduce the effects of climate change in the
past year? Tick all that apply to you.

Don’t
Action Yes No
know
Saved power
Reduced water consumption
Reduced use of packaging and bags
Re-cycled waste
Bought energy-efficient devices
Informed myself about climate change
Used public transport more frequently
Encouraged friends/colleagues to reduce effects of climate change
Improved home insulation
Changed travel activities

2.3 Scope and Definition of ICTs

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) defines ICTs as follows:19

ICTs are basically information handling tools—a varied set of goods,

applications and services that are used to produce, store, process,
distribute and exchange information. They include the “old” ICTS of
radio, television and telephone, and the “new” ICTs of computers,
satellites and wireless technology and the Internet. These different
tools are now able to work together, and combine to form our
“networked world”, a massive infrastructure of interconnected
telephone services, standardized computer hardware, the Internet,
radio and television, which reaches into every corner of the globe.

This networked world is bringing data and information closer to the communities who need and
may benefit most from them.

2.4 ICT Trends and their Implications for Tackling Climate

Change

There are two trends that are important for tackling climate change – digitization and
dematerialization.

Digitization refers to the changing of manual processes to digital ones. Tidal data, daily rainfall,
and other records and documents are increasingly available as electronic files. The creation
of electronic versions of historical records is a good example of digitization of written material.

19 UNDP Evaluation Office, Information Communications Technology for Development, UNDP Essentials: Synthesis of Lessons
Learned (New York, 2001), p. 2.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 29

 Dematerialization means replacing human activities or even goods and services with electronic
equivalents. Examples include using the Internet for banking, and for buying or selling goods
and services, and using videoconferencing to replace attendance at meetings and events such
as conferences.

The following are examples of specific technologies that support digitization and dematerialization.

Virtualization technologies. Desktop virtualization is a fancy word for replacing individual desktop
computers with a main server and keyboards and monitors. This technology replaces the need
for having a desktop computer at each desk or work station in a school, hospital, government
or private sector office. Virtualization of desktops is an application with great potential for
developing countries because of the savings in energy, materials and cost associated with
replacing computers in schools, offices and in other sectors using this technology.

Miniaturization. In the environment and climate field, miniaturization is very significant because
smaller computing devices attached to various sensors make it easier to observe, monitor,
measure and control the environment that surrounds us. Smaller ICTs can more readily be
physically embedded in objects and spaces and this is an important consideration when looking
at innovative uses of ICTs for studying and acting upon the environment. Objects that have
microprocessors embedded in them are called “smart objects”.

In some devices moving parts are replaced by small solid state circuits, where electrons move
around as they would in an electrical circuit. A familiar example is the memory chips found in
USB keys, entrance ID cards for offices, and advance payment cards for urban train systems.
These devices require less energy to operate, work quieter and faster, and are hardier if dropped.
Other solid state technologies include transistors, microprocessor chips, the integrated circuit,
light emitting diodes and liquid-crystal displays. Solid state technologies are found in computers,
mobile phones, digital appliances and various recording devices.

Microprocessors are the brains of computing devices like desktop computers, and are becoming
smaller and more powerful, cheaper, and highly energy efficient. These are finding their way into
everyday objects and spaces such as machines, appliances, buildings and natural environments
such as forests. They are being used to allow smart applications to be developed, and applied
to or embedded into objects and spaces.

Sensor technology. Advances in sensing technologies are some of the most important reasons
that ICTs are extending human capacity to better understand and manage the environment. With
the miniaturization of devices, sensors can be made much smaller and less energy demanding.
This is an important characteristic of environmental sensors. The less energy these sensors use,
the longer they can be deployed without having to be serviced or their batteries replaced. Unlike
sensors used for satellite-based remote sensing, these developments in sensing technology
are predominantly for use at or near the surface of the planet.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). WSNs or wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSANs)
are spatially distributed sensors that monitor physical or chemical conditions in the environment.
In some cases, they allow the perception of the physical or chemical properties of objects or
spaces. In others, they can interact with these objects and spaces, and be used for identification
of objects, people, etc., and for location sensing.20 Here are some specific examples:

20 Jose Paradells Aspas, Anna Calveras Auge and Carlos Gomez Montenegro, “Smart Cities: Going towards the future”,
presentation made at 49th FITCE Congress, Santiango de Compostela, Spain, 1-4 September 2010. Available from
http://www.fitce2010.org/ponencias/1_JUEVES_SESION4_Josep_Paradells.pdf.

30 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

• Use of WSNs for environmental monitoring and related applications to increase the
quality and decrease the cost of collecting environmental data. Application areas include:
farming, environmental management, security and safety, and industries such as mining,
manufacturing and construction.21
• Use of a network of wireless sensors in a rainforest to monitor the recovery of regenerating
rainforest from previous agricultural grassland.22

Cloud computing. Cloud computing refers to applications and digital services that reside
exclusively on the Internet, located on server systems (i.e. large number of powerful computers
that are networked and can only be accessed using the Internet). In exchange for a fee, the cloud
can replace computer operating systems and applications with equivalent services located on
remote servers. Services include a full IT department, server facilities, human resources and
payroll functions online, as well as sales and customer relationship management. This can cut
not only capital costs, but also the cost of purchasing applications and online services. It can
also reduce the amount of energy consumed and the cost of that energy.23

Videoconferencing. Telepresence is a form of high definition videoconferencing using

dedicated Internet connections. It allows the replacement of travel in favour of network-based
videoconferences. Existing videoconferencing facilities using a desktop computer are useful but
still cannot offer the immersive experience of telepresence. The ICT company Cisco attributes
USD 390 million in cost savings to the use of telepresence24 in its daily operations for 158
weeks. These savings were equivalent to 201.7 metric tons of CO2 saved, 36,546 cars off the
road, and 97,543 meetings that took place without the requirement for travel.25 Many developing
countries have established high-end telepresence facilities on a commercial basis and some
hotel chains now offer access to telepresence facilities.26

Social networking. Social networks are Internet-based services that provide content and
services, and allow users to publish their own content and share this with other users of their
designation. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and YouTube are among
the most popular Internet sites and home to hundreds of thousands of applications. Social
networking technologies are increasingly being used by individuals, the private sector, civil
society organizations and governments to enhance communication with stakeholders. They can
be used for raising awareness, mobilizing action and influencing policy decisions (advocacy).
Social networks are also useful public feedback mechanisms. They may strengthen communities
of practice and networking between individuals and organizations with shared interests and
concerns, and thus extend collaboration and knowledge transfer.

21 CSIRO, “Wireless sensor networks: a new instrument for observing our world”, 12 May 2011. Available from http://www.csiro.au/
science/Sensors-and-network-technologies.html.
22 CSIRO, “Environmental monitoring. Monitoring rainforest regeneration”, 16 November 2010. Available from http://research.ict.
csiro.au/research/labs/autonomous-systems/sensor-networks/environmental-monitoring.
23 James Harris and Steven Nunn, “Cloud Computing’s Great Promise”, Forbes.com, 30 June 2010. Available from http://www.
forbes.com/2010/06/30/pharmaceuticals-mobile-salesforcecom-technology-cloud-computing.html?boxes=Homepagetoprated.
24 Monique Meche, “ICT: Enabling the Sustainable City and Community”, presentation made at the Sustainable Development
Forum, 20 January 2010. Available from http://go.worldbank.org/Y5VU0AJTK0.
25 Jennifer Sanford, “ICT: Enabling the Sustainable City and Community”, presentation made at EE Global, 10 May 2010. Available
from http://eeglobalforum.org/10/workshop_presentations/jennifer_sanford_info_comm.pdf.
26 James A. Martin, “Hotel Guests Checking Into Public Cisco TelePresence Rooms”, Cisco, 26 January 2010. Available from
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2010/ts_012610.html.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 31

 Case Study 1. Raising local participation at global climate
change forums with telepresence

Images source: Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Coalition, COP15 United Nations Climate Conference,
Copenhagen: Event Sustainability Report, 2009. Available from http://www.sustainableeventsdenmark.org/
assets/2011/11/cop15-eventsustainability_REPORT.pdf.

During the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP15) held during December
2009 in Copenhagen, telepresence was highlighted as a way of enhancing participation
in substantive discussions related to the COP. The Copenhagen Sustainable Meeting
Protocol was developed as a result in order to share and capture the experiences
gained during the organization of COP15, and telepresence continued to play a part
during COP16 in Cancun, and COP 17 in Durban.

Key points

• Participants from around the world were able to participate “virtually” in COP15
side events clocking over 250 hours of telepresence meetings held over 149
sessions.
• Strong leadership and drive, strategic approaches, engagement with
stakeholders, integrated operations and transparent administration were
highlighted as key to sustainable event organization with telepresence playing
an important part in enabling more people to join these events and contribute.
• The travel related costs savings and emissions reduction serves as an example
of how telepresence can be a good model to follow when organizing meetings
especially where participants come from all over the world.

Further reading

Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Coalition, COP15 United Nations Climate Conference,

Copenhagen: Event Sustainability Report (2009). Available from http://www.
sustainableeventsdenmark.org/assets/2011/11/cop15-event-sustainability_REPORT.
pdf.

32 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Question To Think About
The photo on the right shows a lot of the
media and communication devices that
were used in the 1980s. (If you cannot
recognize some of them, show the photo
to your parents and ask them if they know
what they are.)

These have progressively grown smaller

due to digitization of image and sound, and
can now be found together in the same
electronic device like a mobile phone.

The technologies shown in the photo plus

a computer can now be combined into a
tablet or smartphone.

What could all this mean in terms of saving

energy and resource materials for these
products?

Images source: Techi, http://www.techi.com/2012/05/all-of-this-now-fits-in-your-pocket/.

2.5 e-Waste and Recycling

One negative aspect of processor design is associated with the energy and resources required
to produce microprocessors. Electronics are major consumers of many precious and special
metals and contribute to the global demand for metals. The embedded energy cost and resources
(water, purified air, metals and other materials) required for the production of microprocessors is
very high.27 The other downside of the pervasiveness of ICTs comes from the massive amounts
of electronic waste (e-waste) associated with discarded devices.

The last decades have had a phenomenal growth in consumption of electronics such as
computers and their peripheral equipment including monitors and printers, mobile phones
and domestic appliances. For example, India had about 5 million PCs in 2006, while China
had roughly 14 million PCs in 2005. Unfortunately, the available data on e-waste arising from
ICTs and other appliances is poor and insufficient, and techniques are required to estimate the
volume generated in the region.

Modern electronics can contain up to 60 different elements, many of which are valuable. Toxic and
hazardous elements are also present in e-waste, and are generated during e-waste processing
(e.g. mercury in gold amalgamation or dioxins from inappropriate incineration).

27 Kris De Decker, “The monster footprint of digital technology”, Low-tech Magazine, 16 June 2009. Available from http://www.
lowtechmagazine.com/2009/06/embodied-energy-of-digital-technology.html.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 33

 Efficient recycling operations to recover the contained metals in old computers may contribute
to reducing GHG emissions stemming from the mining, concentrating, smelting and refining of
precious and special metals, and needs only a fraction of energy compared to mining ores in
nature. The e-waste recycling chain can be divided into these steps: (1) collection, (2) dismantling
and pre-processing, and (3) end-processing for final metal recovery.

• The collection of e-waste is of crucial importance as this determines the amount of material
that may be recovered. In addition, the uncontrolled discarding or inappropriate waste
management generates significant hazardous emissions, with severe impacts on human
health and the environment. Promoting the specialized collection of e-waste can therefore
reduce hazardous emissions, reduce the volume of waste, and serve as a source of the
same materials used to manufacture ICTs.

• Dismantling and pre-processing is done to liberate the valuable components from each
other prior to the final recovery processes, as well as to safely remove and store or treat
hazardous substances. Batteries can be sent to dedicated facilities for the recovery of cobalt,
nickel and copper. The circuit boards present in ICT equipment contain most of the precious
and special metals as well as lead (solders) and flame retardant containing resins. Manual
removal of the circuit boards will prevent losses in precious and special metals. With the
appropriate investment in technology and regulation for safety, developing and transition
countries with rather low labour costs may offer pre-processing services.

• Specific technologies are required to treat the chemical and other hazards they contain, and
recover the recyclable materials such as aluminum, copper, palladium and gold. After the
collection of ICTs, efficient recycling should be applied to keep valuable e-waste components
(e.g. metals) in the economy and safely dispose of harmful components in order to prevent
risks to human health and the environment.

34 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Case Study 2. WEEE Recycle in India

Images source: WEEE Recycle website, http://www.weeerecycle.in/index.php.

e-Waste is recognized as a major challenge in the waste management policies of

India. India’s National Environment Policy (2006) emphasizes the need for recovery
and reuse of any material to reduce waste and extract valuable components such
as metals like gold and copper. Recycling activities are carried out by small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) in the informal sector in some of the densely populated
cities of India. With little or no regulation in the informal sector, SMEs are using highly
hazardous and polluting techniques to recycle e-waste.

The WEEE Recycle Project is developing the capacity of SMEs to recycle e-waste
safely using environmentally sound technologies. Focused on four cities (Bangalore,
Delhi, Kolkata and Pune), e-waste collection points have been established and informal
sector workers have been organized and trained in environmentally sound recycling
practices and standards.

An R&D component ensures that the project follows international standards and the
latest developments in technologies and techniques for e-waste recycling. The R&D
component aims to: adopt or adapt environmentally sound recycling technologies
for specific waste streams; increase efficiency in recovery; standardize the recycling
product; and develop green products for safer recycling especially for the items being
extensively recycled.

Key points

• Promoting ICT industries and applications brings with it a need to recognize the
recycling of e-waste as a social problem.
• Recycling e-waste is a labour-intensive enterprise attractive to the informal
sector. Raising capacities for safe and environmentally sound recycling practice
should be addressed.
• R&D can be undertaken to improve recycling techniques and promote green
products.

Further reading and contact information

WEEE Recycle website, http://www.weeerecycle.in/index.php.

Contact: Advisory Services in Environmental Management, GIZ, contact@asemindia.
com.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 35

 2.6 Green Computing
Green computing refers to a holistic approach to addressing the environmental impacts of ICTs.
It is the contribution of the ICT sector and industries to sustainable development, that is, they
strive to be economically viable and have a minimal impact on the environment.

Each stage of a computer’s life (from production through disposal) represents the consumption
of electricity, raw materials, chemicals and water; and each stage generates hazardous waste,
and directly or indirectly increases carbon emissions.28 Green computing ensures the sustainable
design, manufacture, use and disposal of computers, servers, and associated devices (monitors,
printers, storage devices, etc.).

Figure 6. Green a computer’s entire lifestyle

Source: San Murugesan, “Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices”, IEEE IT Professional, January-February 2008, p. 27.
Available from http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~dtipper/2011/GreenPaper.pdf.

The approach follows four paths to address the environmental impacts of ICT:

1. Green design – Design that takes into consideration energy efficiency and minimal impact
on the environment.

2. Green manufacturing – Production of ICTs that has minimal or no environmental impact.

EPEAT (http://www.epeat.net) is a global registry for greener electronics. Manufacturers can
register their products in EPEAT. EPEAT-registered products have reduced environmental
impact across their production life cycles. This includes reduced use of toxins in
manufacturing, more efficient operation and easier recycling. EPEAT product registration
is country-specific because product identification and environmental performance can vary
by location. As of 2012, Asia Pacific countries that are included in the EPEAT system are:
Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan.

3. Green use – Practices that reduce energy consumption. They include turning off computers
and using computer monitor energy savers. ENERGY STAR is an international standard
for energy efficient products, which means that products certified by ENERGY STAR will
consume less energy throughout their useful life.29 Green use also involves refurbishing
old computers by upgrading or reconditioning their parts; and the promotion of reuse by
donating an older model computer to others (people or organizations) who are willing to use it.

28 San Murugesan, “Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices”, IEEE IT Professional, January-February 2008, pp. 24-33.
Available from http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~dtipper/2011/GreenPaper.pdf.
29 See ENERGY STAR Program Requirements for Computers, Version 5.0. Available from http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/
prod_development/revisions/downloads/computer/Version5.0_Computer_Spec.pdf.

36 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

4. Green disposal – Promotion of the proper disposal of electronics in specialized
e-waste management systems, and the recycling of unwanted electronic equipment
by recovering usable raw materials from ICT components. The United Kingdom has
regulations that can be used as reference (see http://www.netregs.gov.uk/netregs/
legislation/380525/473094/?lang=e).

Data Centres

Data centres are facilities used to house computer systems and associated components, such
as telecommunications and storage systems. They generally include redundant or backup
power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e.g.,
air conditioning, fire suppression) and security devices.30 Data centres consume large amount
of electrical power, but they can be designed and built to be green.

The power consumption of data centres comes from two main sources: (1) for normal operations,
and (2) for cooling to achieve peak performance. Placing data centres in locations that rely on
fossil fuels for the generation of electrical power releases large amounts of CO2, thus green
computing means locating data centres in places that rely on renewable or non-polluting energy,
or on energy sources that do not emit carbon. Data centres may also be located in climates where
the air is sufficiently cold enough to cool servers. Some countries are marketing themselves
as destinations for data centres because they offer a combination of access to either plentiful
and relatively inexpensive renewable power for data centre operations and/or a cooler climate.

Points To Remember

• ICTs can enable societies to adapt to the consequences of climate change and
mitigate GHG emissions.
• ICTs can help communicate the information on what may be done to adapt
to climate change or reduce GHG emissions, to convince end users to take
appropriate actions.
• Digitization and dematerialization are important ICT trends that promote
efficiency in the use of energy and resources, as well as reduce GHG emissions.
• We should be conscious about how ICTs can generate e-waste and the need
to recycle electronics.

30 Wikipedia, “Data center”. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 37

 Something To Do

Remind your classmates about saving energy by creating and circulating a checklist.
You can include the following tips:

• Use a screen-saver to minimize the energy used by your monitor.

• Turn off your computer before going to class or lunch.
• Before going home, switch off all computers, monitors, printers, facsimile
machines, scanners and photocopiers.
• Check to see if your electronic devices have a power-saving feature. If yes,
make sure that it is enabled. If no, look for products with power-saving features
when acquiring your next device.
• Before printing a document, think carefully:
- Do you really need to print, or can you just read it from your computer?
- Can you do double-sided printing to save on paper?
• See Ohio University’s Green Computing Guide at http://www.ohio.edu/facilities/
recycle/erecycling.htm.

Test Yourself

Match the ICT trend with the letter corresponding to its example.

ICT Trend Answer Example

Virtualization A. 4 Gigabytes of data used to be stored
in several compact disks, and are now
contained in a tiny thumb drive.
B. A world-renowned researcher in climate
Miniaturization change impacts on forests can deliver a
short lecture to students in five countries
simultaneously, as well as answer their
questions using computers, video-
cameras and microphones.
Sensor
C. Fans of Angelina Jolie can be alerted
by tweets on their computers and
smartphones that she is coming to their
country to campaign for mitigating GHG
Social networking emissions in order to preserve children’s
future.
D. Students can search for references from
an electronic catalogue at access points
Videoconferencing within a library building.
E. A motion detector is used to switch lights
on and off.

38 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

3. ICT applications for adapting to
climate change

Objectives:
• Appreciate the need to adapt to climate change
• Be familiar with major types of ICT applications for climate change adaptation
• Develop a simple ICT application to help raise awareness for climate change
adaptation

ICTs have the potential to inform and enhance the processes for formulating policies and making
decision towards the achievement of climate change adaptation goals set by governments,
sectors and communities. This chapter presents some of the arguments why these goals are
important, and how technologies may be applied to reach them.

3.1 The Need to Adapt to Climate Change

• There are impacts of climate change on ecosystems and humans that are expected to be
detrimental. Some findings are presented below:31

• By the 2080s, many million more people than today are projected to experience floods every
year due to sea level rise. The numbers affected will be largest in the densely populated
and low-lying mega deltas of Asia and Africa, while small islands are especially vulnerable.

• Mountain snow pack, glaciers and small ice caps play a crucial role in freshwater availability.
Widespread mass losses from glaciers and reductions in snow cover over recent decades
are projected to accelerate throughout the twenty-first century, reducing water availability,
hydropower potential, and changing seasonality of flows in regions supplied by melt water
from major mountain ranges (e.g. Hindu-Kush, Himalaya, Andes), where more than one-
sixth of the world’s population currently lives.

• Runoff is projected with high confidence to increase by 10 to 40 per cent by mid-century

at higher latitudes and in some wet tropical areas, including populous areas in East and
South-East Asia. On the other hand, runoff is projected to decrease by 10 to 30 per cent
over some dry regions at mid-latitudes and dry tropics, due to decreases in rainfall and
higher rates of evapotranspiration.

• By the 2050s, freshwater availability in Central, South, East and South-East Asia, particularly
in large river basins, is projected to decrease.

• Endemic morbidity and mortality due to diarrhoeal disease primarily associated with floods
and droughts are expected to rise in East, South and South-East Asia due to projected
changes in the hydrological cycle.

31 IPCC, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Geneva, 2007).

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 39

 Figure 7. South-East Asia’s vulnerability to extreme climate hazards

Source: IDRC, “Show and Tell: Plotting Climate Change Hot Spots”, 2009. Available from http://www.idrc.ca/eepsea/ev-148556-201-
1-DO_TOPIC.html.

In small island developing states, e.g. the South Pacific, Timor-Leste and Maldives, the following
impacts are projected:

• Sea level rise is expected to exacerbate inundation, storm surge, erosion and other coastal
hazards, thus threatening vital infrastructure, settlements and facilities that support the
livelihood of island communities.
• Deterioration in coastal conditions, for example through erosion of beaches and coral
bleaching, is expected to affect local resources.
• By mid-century, climate change is expected to reduce water resources in many small islands,
to the point where they become insufficient to meet demand during low-rainfall periods.
• With higher temperatures, increased invasion by non-native species is expected to occur,
particularly on mid- and high-latitude islands.

40 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Figure 8. Projected changes in temperature and precipitation extremes, including
dryness, in Asia

Source: CDKN, Managing climate extremes and disasters in Asia: Lessons from the SREX report (2012), p. A6.

Figure 8 summarizes the projected changes in climate for the sub-regions of Asia. Information
about all these impacts, however, is still generalized over large areas and therefore is not
specific enough to be used for local planning and decision-making.32 In addition, several
potential ICT applications such as those in table 2 are needed for generating information for
adaptation planning.

32 IPCC, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Geneva, 2007).

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 41

 Table 2. Climate change adaptation and ICT applications

Sector Examples of Adaptation Measures Sample Areas of ICT Applications

Water • Better management and use of • Sensors to monitor soil moisture,
resources water supply to adapt to changes water flow and precipitation
in availability and quality • Sensors to monitor water quality
• Water policy reform (soil, pollution and salt)
Agriculture • Development of crops that are tol- • Remote sensing and sensor
and food erant or resistant to flood, drought, systems to identify crop systems
security cold or heat • WSNs for drought monitoring,
• Diversification of crops, based on irrigation control, monitoring water
predicted changes in climate and nutrient status of crops, etc.
Human • New or improved disease or vector • Online applications for public feed-
health surveillance back on disease
• Improvement in the use of disease • Geographic information system
EWS (GIS) to analyse spread of disease
Ecosystems • Creation of parks, reserves and • Remote sensing for:
protected areas - Measuring forest canopy cover
• Monitoring species and biodiversity - Tracking the health of forests
• Vulnerability assessment - Recording and tracking plant
• Better land-use planning and diseases, pathologies and
zoning that integrates projected disease vectors
changes in climate - Measuring forest loss
• Protective policy measures against • GIS for integrating information data
projected climate changes impacts sets, land-use planning
Disaster risk • Improvement in monitoring and • Modelling the changing exposure
manage- early warning of climate-related and vulnerability to climate-related
ment (DRM) hazards disaster risks
• Policy measures for integrating into • Developing EWS for climate-r
DRM planning information related elated hazards (see Primer 3: ICT
to climate change adaptation for Disaster Risk Management)

Source: Adapted from Angelica Valeria Ospina and Richard Heeks, ICTs and Climate Change Adaptation: Enabling Innovative
Strategies, Strategy Brief 1, Climate Change, Innovation and ICTs Project, 2011. Available from http://www.niccd.org/node/20.

There are positive impacts from climate change, as when colder regions become warm
enough to expand the type of crops that they can grow and export. Monitoring and predicting
positive impacts and planning to utilize these for the benefit of one’s country is also a form of
climate change adaptation. A process of dialogue between the climate scientists and the local
communities or sectors can help specify the potential climate change impacts on livelihood and
welfare, both positive and negative.

3.2 Facilitating Climate Change Observation

ICTs can strengthen the capacity of countries to collect data about the climate (temperature,
humidity rainfall and snowfall) and sea levels. The data is important for describing the climate
itself (which is based on the 30-year averages for temperature, humidity and precipitation) and
local sea levels. The data collected through automated means can be combined with historical
records and manual collection methods.

42 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

The following are some examples of the use of ICT applications for climate change observation:

• Some national meteorological institutes are investing in automated meteorological stations

to improve the frequency and reliability of climate data.
• Remote sensing refers to the process of recording information from sensors mounted
either on satellites or aircrafts. It has contributed to climate modelling of the globe and its
regions through the monitoring of precipitation using radar. It also contributed to monitoring
sea levels with specific satellites altimetry (the measurement of elevation).

Case Study 3. Global precipitation measurement

Satellites can play an important part in collecting precipitation measurements needed for
climate change adaptation due to their capability to scan large parts of the atmosphere.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), among others, have been working to monitor and measure
global precipitation in an effort to support climate change related research.

Key points

• Precipitation measurement is an important part of developing climate change

adaptation measures.
• Satellites can be very effective in this effort due to their global reach.

Further reading

JAXA, “Global Precipitation Measurement”,

http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gpm/index_e.
html.

 
Image source: http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/gpm/index_e.html.

3.3 Modelling Climate Change

One of the defining challenges in climate change research and decision-making is to adequately
characterize and manage the uncertainties associated with projections of climate change,
particularly at local scale and for parameters (such as precipitation) that are not modelled
easily. The climate science community developed techniques and methods, mostly using
supercomputers, to perform a set of climate models and emissions scenarios for a range of
possible future climate conditions. Downscaling is another set of modelling done to improve
the level of detail at the scale of a country or local area.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 43

 Case Study 4. The Nepal Climate Portal

Images source: ADPC

The Nepal Department of Hydrology and Meteorology had a project on climate data
digitization and downscaling of climate projections for the benefit of policy development
and impact analyses at the sector level. It supported data digitizing, quality control
and archiving of historical meteorological data, downscaling of future climate change
projections, and public access through the Nepal Climate Data Portal (http://www.
dhm.np/dpc). Users may generate the following products: printable maps, time-series
charts, data download and purchase, data filter and queries, data comparison and
aggregation, multiple colour legend options, and information about observation stations.

Key points

• Downscaling of climate change projections is a vital step towards developing

suitable adaptation measures.
• Tools to digitize historical data and computer modelling of climates are important
for developing future climate projections used in planning adaptation measures.

Contact information

Department of Hydrology and Meteorology dg@dhm.gov.np.

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center adpc@adpc.net or www.adpc.net.

3.4 Facilitating Climate Change Adaptation in Vulnerable

Sectors

Some sectors were identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as
vulnerable to the impacts of climate change such as water, health, agriculture, coasts, ecosystems
and DRM. Adaptation involves the following steps:

1. The analysis of what makes a sector vulnerable

2. Agreement on an adaptation vision or target
3. Identification of different options that may be taken, development of strategies to implement
these options, and prioritization of these options
4. Implementation of the chosen adaptation actions, and practice regular monitoring of the
project as well as any updates from the climate science community

44 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Risk screening tools have been developed to minimize maladaptation33 by focusing projects on
reducing vulnerability and raising capacity for adaptation (see case study 5).

The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report gives the following projected general impacts on various
sectors:34

Climate change and water. Climate change is expected to add to the stresses on water
resources. Focused climate impact studies are needed to determine significant impacts in the
near future on water availability and water quality, and whether water utilities can still meet the
needs of citizens at desired levels of reliability and affordability.

• In areas where glaciers are projected to lose mass or snowfall is expected to decrease,
freshwater availability will be reduced along with hydropower potential.
• The extent of areas exposed to drought is projected to increase, potentially affecting sectors
such as agriculture, water supply, energy production and health.
• In areas where precipitation is expected to increase, water runoff is projected with high
confidence to increase by 10 to 40 per cent by mid-century at higher latitudes and in some
wet tropical areas. This results in increased flood risk in the future.

Case Study 5. CRiSTAL, the community-based risk

screening tool
Project planners and managers can use the CRiSTAL tool to integrate climate change
adaptation and risk reduction into community-level projects. These projects are mostly
aimed at revitalizing ecosystems, strengthening local capacities for risk management
and diversifying livelihoods of farmers, fishers and foresters. CRiSTAL is a spreadsheet
program that is relatively easy to use. It aims to minimize maladaptation by providing
concrete information on how projects are linked to and influence climate-related
vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities. Multiple consultations have to be conducted
to gather the necessary information engaging different gender, economic and social
groups. The user manual can be used in the field to gather relevant data that can
then be fed into the CRiSTAL spreadsheet document back at an office.

Key points

• ICT tools such as CRiSTAL

serve as easy to use methods
that ensure the consideration of
climate change adaptation and
risk reduction when developing
community-level projects.
• Projects developed using this
methodology can serve as
examples for regional and national
level projects.
 Image source: http://www.iisd.org/cristaltool.
Further reading

CRiSTAL website, http://www.iisd.org/cristaltool.

33 Maladaptation is an adaptation process that results in increased vulnerability to climate change and/or undermines capacity for
future adaptation (http://www.apmen.iom.int/en/m/editorials/item/102-avoiding-maladaptation-to-better-manage-climate-induced-
migration-in-asia-pacific).
34 IPCC, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report (2007).

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 45

 Climate change, agriculture and food security. Crop productivity is projected to increase
slightly for some crops in the areas generally located 50 degrees above and below the equator,
where the local mean temperature will rise from 1-3°C. However, productivity may decrease if
local mean temperature increases further. At lower latitudes, especially in seasonally dry and
tropical regions, crop productivity is projected to decrease for even small local temperature
increases (1-2°C), which would increase the risk of hunger.35 ICTs can be used to model how
climate change may affect future food production in Asia (see case study 6).

Case Study 6. Assessing climate change impacts on

agriculture
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) sponsored a study that
assessed the impact of climate change on the agriculture sector.
The study used predictions of global climate models to develop
scenarios to 2050 for the Asia Pacific region and to derive
implications for food security.

The report asserts that agriculture is a sector most vulnerable

to climate change. More than 60 per cent of the population of
ADB’s developing member countries directly or indirectly rely
 on agriculture as a source of livelihood. Disruptions in this sector will have global
negative implications on food availability, access and utilization.

The study utilized several models and model outputs to come up with the impacts,
adaptation and resilience measures, and policy recommendations, such as:

• Results from three general circulation models of the global climate

• The International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and
Trade (IMPACT) partial equilibrium partial equilibrium model of world agriculture,
designed to examine alternative futures for global food supply, demand, trade,
prices and food security; it covers over 40 agricultural commodities
• The Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) crop modelling
suite that has several modules – e.g. land, soil, daily weather values and crop
models

Key points

• Adaptation in agriculture requires assessment of the cross impacts of climate,

crop response and related development decisions.
• At a regional level, computer models can be utilized to estimate the complex
impacts of climate change and evaluate agriculture policy options.

Further reading

ADB, Building Climate Resilience in the Agriculture Sector of Asia and

the Pacific (Manila, 2009). Available from http://www.adb.org/publications/
building-climate-resilience-agriculture-sector-asia-and-pacific.
International Food Policy Research Institute, “IMPACT Model”, http://www.ifpri.org/
book-751/ourwork/program/impact-model.
DSSAT website, http://dssat.net/.

35 ADB, Food Security and Climate Change in the Pacific: Rethinking the Options (Manila, 2011). Available from http://www.adb.
org/publications/food-security-and-climate-change-pacific-rethinking-options.

46 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Climate change and human health. Climate change is projected to bring some benefits in
temperate areas through an anticipated reduction in death from exposure to the cold, but overall
it is expected that negative health effects will outweigh the benefits, especially in developing
countries. The health status of millions of people is projected to be affected through different
drivers of health:36

• The reduction in water supply can affect the reliability and quality of food sources, resulting
in increases in malnutrition.
• Extreme weather events may lead to increased deaths, diseases and injury.
• Air pollution may increase due to changes in precipitation, temperature, humidity and air
circulation, as well as from increased pollutants from natural sources, e.g. drought conditions
increasing the potential of forests and vegetation catching fire.
• Contamination of food and water sources may increase the incidence of diarrhoea and
other water-borne diseases.
• Changes in environmental conditions may alter the spatial distribution of some infectious
diseases and their pathogens.

ICTs may be used to monitor factors that affect human health, as shown in case study 7.

Climate change and ecosystems. The resilience of many ecosystems will be challenged by
the combination of projected climate changes, associated disturbances (e.g. flooding, drought,
wildfire, insect infestation, ocean acidification) and other change drivers (e.g. land-use change,
pollution, fragmentation of natural systems, and overexploitation of resources). Approximately
20 to 30 per cent of plant and animal species assessed so far are likely to be at increased risk
of extinction if increases in global average temperature exceed 1.5-2.5°C.

Climate change and DRM. The vulnerable industries, settlements and societies are generally
those in densely populated and low-lying deltas of Asia, small islands, and in coastal and river
flood plains. The most vulnerable also includes those whose economies are closely linked with
climate-sensitive resources, and those in areas prone to extreme weather events, especially
where rapid urbanization is occurring.

IPCC published the SREX report37 that integrates perspectives from several research
communities studying climate science, climate impacts, adaptation to climate change and
DRM. The report analysed the scientific literature for the relationship between climate change
and extreme weather and climate events (or “climate extremes”), and the implications of these
events for society and sustainable development. The report states that the character and
severity of impacts from climate extremes depend on the extremes themselves, on exposure
and on vulnerability. But they are influenced by a wide range of factors, including anthropogenic
climate change, natural climate variability and socio-economic development (see figure 8). DRM
and adaptation to climate change are needed to influence the development process in order to
reduce exposure and vulnerability, and increase resilience to the impacts of climate extremes.

36 WHO Heat Waves, Floods and the Health Impacts of Climate Change: A Prototype Training Workshop for City Officials (Kobe,
2010). Available from http://www.who.int/kobe_centre/publications/heatwaves_floods/en/index.html.
37 IPCC, Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, Special Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2012). Available from http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 47

 Case Study 7. Urban Services Monitoring Systems
Urgent attention must be given to improving the surveillance of sanitation and water
systems, near-real-time management information systems, as well as the linkages
between the hydraulics and sanitation departments. Moreover, vector-borne diseases
are complex issues that need to be understood better with ongoing research and
surveillance systems.

Surat Municipal Corporation in India developed the

Urban Service Monitoring System to improve the
monitoring and handling of complaints related to health,
water supply, sewerage and solid waste services. A
text messaging system can be downloaded and used
by citizens to report complaints and needs. In addition,
a reporting and web-based GIS interface has been
developed to aid decision makers. This system can be
modified for use during emergencies such as floods.
Image source: UrSMS Brochure,
http://www.acccrn.org/sites/default/files/
Key points documents/URSMS_booklet.pdf.

• Adaptation could include monitoring sanitation and water systems.

• ICT-enabled crowdsourcing of monitoring information can improve linkages with
communities.

Further reading

UrSMS Project website, http://surat.ursms.net/cms/home.aspx.

UrSMS Brochure, http://www.acccrn.org/sites/default/files/documents/URSMS_
booklet.pdf.
ACCCRN, “Urban Service Monitoring System (UrSMS)”, http://www.acccrn.org/
resources/documents-and-tools/urban-service-monitoring-system-ursms.

Figure 9. Exposure and vulnerability to weather and climate events determine impacts
and the likelihood of disasters

Source: IPCC, Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, Special Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2012), p. 4. Available from http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/.

48 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

The SREX report described the possible impacts of climate extremes by region. For Asia, climate
extremes, increasing vulnerability and increasing exposure are expected to result in increasing
economic losses, have adverse impacts on key economic sectors (water, agriculture and food
security, forestry, health, tourism) and on infrastructure, and will interact significantly with the
urban and urbanization processes in densely populated Asian cities. Recommendation for the
way forward includes integrating DRM, climate change adaptation and sustainable development.

Case study 8 describes how ICTs can help identify the short-term variations in the climate,
possibly related to the ongoing climate change process, that may lead to disasters. Case study
9 gives a specific example of hazard monitoring and early warning and useful ICTs. Primer
3 has another example on monitoring glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) in Nepal (see case
study 1 in Primer 3).

Case Study 8. Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre

seasonal forecasting

Facing sharp increases in weather-related disasters, the Red Cross/Red Crescent

Climate Centre produces seasonal forecasts using ICT, and employs modelling tools
to assist in determining human resource needs and relief needs estimates. Users
of this information can assess the impact of too much or too little rain over a coming
period on food security, health, DRM, displacement of people and livelihoods. With this
information, vulnerabilities are identified, preparedness measures can be developed,
contingency plans can be updated and capacity building needs can be addressed
in a more informed way. While seasonal forecasts do not project far into the future,
such applications can be used to manage current climate risks.

 Image source: Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre website, http://www.climatecentre.org.

Key points

• Aid agencies that respond to weather-related disasters need more accurate

forecasts of seasonal changes to prepare the required resources and develop
effective contingency plans.
• Seasonal forecasting using ICT and modelling tools is increasingly playing an
important role in climate change adaptation.

Further reading

Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre website, http://www.climatecentre.org.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 49

 Case Study 9. Monitoring and early warning of GLOF from
Lake Sarez

In 1911, a massive earthquake triggered a landslide that buried the village of Usoi
and dammed the Murghab River in Tajikistan. Now it is known as the Usoi Natural
Dam in the Pamir range. This dam created a 60 km-long lake containing over 17 km³
of water called Lake Sarez, and since that year has been the subject of scientific
inquiry as to the stability of the new dam and risk of a catastrophic flood. Part of the
risk stems from a possible landslide at a point called the Right-Bank Slope. Climate
change is expected to lead to melting of snow-caps and glaciers in Central Asia, and
increase the flow of water to Lake Sarez in the near future, and therefore increase
the risk of glacial lake outburst floods.

The Lake Sarez Risk Mitigation Project was undertaken to establish a systematic
hydrological, hydro-geological and geological monitoring of Lake Sarez and Usoi
Dam. An emergency communication system was installed for the settlements located
in close proximity to the lake, accompanied by disaster preparedness measures. A
monitoring and EWS was installed in 2004 to detect the imminent possibility of an
outburst flood, and send a signal that will trigger alarms in the most vulnerable villages
found downstream. GIS and remote sensing are being used to develop flood scenarios,
and to analyse information to determine the risk and potential socio-economic impacts
of a catastrophic flood for downstream communities.

Key points

• ICTs are useful for monitoring

potential GLOF
• Emergency communication
equipment is needed to relay
warnings
• Data from remote sensing can
be used for developing flood  
Image source: UNISDR, Sarez Lake: The latest achievements and
scenarios unsolved problems, December 2007. Available from http://www.
• GIS provides analytical tools unisdr.org/files/10896_SarezBrochureengreduced%5B1%5D.pdf.

for developing hazard and

impact scenarios

Further reading

UNISDR, Sarez Lake: The latest achievements and unsolved problems,

D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 7 . Av a i l a b l e f r o m h t t p : / / w w w. u n i s d r. o r g / f i l e s / 1 0 8 9 6 _
SarezBrochureengreduced%5B1%5D.pdf.

3.5 Facilitating Adaptive Learning

ICTs have the potential to raise awareness, build capacity, and transform how organizations
deliver goods and services to be better adapted to the future. On the web, the availability of
courses, learning and sharing networks, and free resources related to climate change adaption
are contributing to strengthening people’s resilience to climate change. For example:

50 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

e-Learning
• UN-APCICT’s ICTD for Youth, an online distance learning programme on ICTs for achieving
development goals, and includes this Primer. It is for students in undergraduate and graduate
programmes at universities in the Asia-Pacific region (http://www.unapcict.org/pr).
• EPA’s Student’s Guide to Global Climate Change (http://epa.gov/climatestudents/index.html).
• UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education offers an online course for a fee. It is entitled,
“Integrated Water Resources Management as a Tool for Adaptation to Climate Change”
(http://www.unesco-ihe.org/online-course-iwrm-tool-adaption-climate-change).

Online resources
• UNFCCC Adaptation webpage (http://unfccc.int/adaptation/) contains national adaptation
plans and programmes and other official documents. UNFCCC also manages an online
community, “Adaptation Exchange” on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/The.
Adaptation.Exchange) that aims to stimulate collaboration, sharing and networking on
adaptation.
• The Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (http://www.asiapacificadapt.net) is a regional
programme for managing and applying adaptation knowledge in the region. The website
provides a platform for holding online discussions on climate change adaptation issues.
It also shares news, events, documents and project information related to climate change
adaptation in the region.
• weADAPT (http://www.weadapt.org) is an online knowledge sharing platform that allows
practitioners, researchers and policymakers to access credible, high quality information
and to share experiences and lessons learnt on climate adaptation issues.
• Adaptation Learning Mechanism (http://www.adaptationlearning.net) is an online knowledge
sharing and discussion platform facilitated by UNDP.
• Adaptation Atlas (http://www.adaptationatlas.org) is a web-based application that enables
user-driven, dynamically generated maps of climate impacts and adaptation activities. It
includes a database of peer reviewed climate studies and adaptation projects.
• World Bank makes available climate change data of specific countries (http://data.worldbank.
org/topic/climate-change).

Points To Remember

• It is important to identify the sectors and communities exposed and vulnerable to

the impacts of climate change (such as agriculture, environment, health, water,
and coastal towns and cities).
• ICTs can enhance our ability to create, manage and exchange climate adaptation
information for more informed decision-making.
• Downscaling is a form of climate modelling that achieves greater precision and
less uncertainty over projections of what the climate may be in the future.
• Other computer modelling techniques can assist to determine possible impacts
for cities, towns, small islands, small climate phenomena such as cyclones, and
for areas with complex features such as mountains and valleys.
• Investment can be made in gathering and digitizing socio-economic data, earth
observation data, and analysing these using GIS platforms.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 51

 Youth in Action

The Development Reality Institute, a youth-based organization in Zimbabwe,

designed the first virtual school on climate change. Run and managed by youths
and targeting the youth, its interactive online course aims to raise awareness on the
effects of climate change to development. Utilizing Internet and SMS technology to
communicate with participants, the project won the World Summit Youth Award 2010
as the best innovative and creative e-content addressing the Millennium Development
Goals,39 and is recognized in the UNFCCC Youth Portal. See its website at:
http://www.driafrica.org.

Something To Do

Use social media to spread awareness among your school friends about your
country’s projected climate in the near future and the climate change adaptation
needs, and start generating ideas about how to fulfill those needs.

The goal: To create a Facebook page for promoting climate change adaptation
actions by people who are about your age.

This project should take two weeks to accomplish.

1. Form a team to work on your project with no more than seven members. Assign
yourselves roles—have one team leader, and divide the rest into researchers
and designers.

The role of the team leader is to organize the group, keep everyone focused,
plan the project and the amount of time it takes to fulfill each task, and motivate
everyone to finish.

The role of the research group is to be responsible for the research on your
country’s future climate and adaptation needs. This group will develop the content
and write short articles for the Facebook page.

The role of the design group is to lead the brainstorming of a concept and design
for the Facebook page, and then make choices of what applications will go into
the page. This group will also look for images, photos, videos and other audio-
visual materials that will be linked or uploaded on the page.

It is important that the entire team meet regularly to update each other on
progress, obtain inputs from the team members and ensure that everyone has
a common vision for the way forward that will guide the work of the research
and design groups.

38 The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that were established following the Millennium
Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United
Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations committed to help achieve these goals by the year 2015
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Development_Goals).

52 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 2. For the research group:

The project requires some research about the projected impacts of climate change
on your country. Your research should fall into three categories—(1) climate
projections; (2) vulnerable sectors (such as those in table 2); and (3) adaptation
needs.

Check out the online resources listed in section 3.5. You could also use an online
search engine such as Google or Yahoo! to generate searches using the keywords
of your country’s name and “national adaptation plan” or “national adaptation
programme of action”.

Be careful in selecting the materials that you will use. Prioritize official documents
from the government and research findings from reputed institutions.

Do the research for a maximum of two days, then describe the findings to the rest
of the group. As a group, talk about the future impacts that may happen around
20 or 30 years later, and identify an adaptation need that you feel will be most
important for your well-being. For example, your future may have less precipitation
and so your agriculture sector will have to switch to crops that can handle less rain.
What can you do as a student to help farmers and farming corporations adapt?

3. For the entire team:

Select the key adaptation message that you want to make. This message should
be about what other students can do to help, and what they will need to know in
order to help. Identify the pieces of evidence from among the official documents
and research papers already gathered.

Set an appointment with your teacher for this course, or with a faculty member
who has done related research. Present your ideas to the teacher, explaining your
logic and the research you had undertaken to come to your ideas. Be open to
feedback on how to improve your ideas. Based on the feedback from the teacher,
review your ideas for adaptation and finalize your key message. Some additional
research may be necessary, if the teacher pointed out some holes in the logic, or
missing pieces of evidence.

4. For the design group:

While the research group is doing their work in step 2, open a Facebook account
and study how to make a Page for your campaign for adaptation. Study the
features and applications that you can utilize. For example, the page can contain:

• Images
• Links to videos
• Links to publications
• Opinion polls
• Text that can contain your messages to the students reading your page
• Links to other Facebook pages

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 53

 After the key message is finalized, design and create your page. Make sure that
your key message is clearly visible at the top of the page. The page should contain
at least the following:

• A page title, which should be your message for adaptation phrased in a catchy
or interesting way
• An image or picture that symbolizes or depicts your message
• A short description under the title that explains why other students should be
concerned about their future, and what kind of future this will be
• Space for visitors to your page to give comments or messages on what they
intend or promise to do to promote adaptation
• Links to videos about the topic
• A reading list of the important documents and research papers you gathered,
with links to where they may be downloaded

5. Further action:

• After creating your page, share it with other students in your network. Ask
them to “Like” your page.
• Consider a strategy for maintaining the Facebook page with updated posts
on latest news, events and research related to climate change adaptation.
• Take the time to send us an email at info@unapcict.org to let us know that
you have created the page, and we can share it with other students in other
countries who are also taking this course.

Test Yourself
1. How can ICTs be used to improve climate change adaptation? Look at the listed ICT
applications in table 2 to arrive at the answer.
a. Identify areas exposed to climate change impacts such as sea level rise and
temperature changes
b. Identify sectors within exposed areas that will be affected by climate change
impacts
c. Model how the climate will change at different points of time in the future
d. All of the above

2. Downscaling is performed to adequately characterize and manage the _____ associated

with projections of climate change. Fill in the blank. Hint: read section 3.3.

3. What are the sectors that can be affected by climate change? Name at least two, and
describe one potential ICT application for each. (See table 2 for the answers.)

54 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

4. ICT applications for mitigating
climate change

Objectives:
• Appreciate the need to reduce greenhouse gases
• Appreciate the need to reduce energy consumption
• Be familiar with major types of ICT applications for climate change mitigation
• Develop a simple ICT application to help track energy consumption or GHG use

4.1 The Need to Mitigate Climate Change

Most of the global average warming over the past 50 years is very likely due to GHG increases
from anthropogenic sources (human action) and it is likely that there is a discernible human-
induced warming averaged over each continent (except Antarctica). Unless this trend is reversed,
the IPCC warns that there will be dire consequences.

Developing countries are different from developed countries in terms of sources of GHG
emissions: lower emissions from energy but higher emissions from manufacturing, construction,
deforestation and agriculture. Developing countries also have different needs such as poverty
reduction that may rank higher on the policy agenda39 and are related to higher emissions due
to manufacturing, agriculture and deforestation.

The reduction of GHG emissions is therefore important in order to avert the catastrophe expected
by the IPCC. Climate change mitigation refers to human actions to reduce the sources of GHGs
or enhance their removal from the atmosphere. ICTs can contribute to this goal by: monitoring
the emissions; enabling the efficient use of energy and resources; enabling the reduction of
GHG emissions; and promoting green and transformative ICTs.

What has already happened cannot be changed, but will reducing our potential CO2 emissions
into the atmosphere make a difference? There are arguments that human emissions need
to be kept below 450 ppm (parts per millilitre) by the year 2100, while others advocate for as
much as 1350 ppm. But what is the best way to achieve any of these targets? There are three
options: (1) do nothing and keep letting emissions increase; (2) keep emissions at the current
level; and (3) reduce emissions.

4.2 Facilitating Environmental Observation

Due to concerns about pollution, sustainability and environmental well-being, there is an important
and growing market for such ICT devices in the public and private sectors to aid regulation.
Many companies are now developing sustainability plans and publishing sustainability reports
on a regular basis. Devices are thus developed and marketed for environmental observation,
monitoring and control.

39 Helen Roeth and others, “ICTs and Climate Change Mitigation in Developing Countries”, Strategy Brief 4, Climate Change
Innovation and ICTs Project, University of Manchester, 2012. Available from http://www.niccd.org/sites/default/files/ICTs_and_
Climate_Change_Mitigation_Strategy_Brief.pdf.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 55

 Remote sensing enables viewing of the same area over long periods of time, and is used to
monitor environmental change, human impact and natural processes. This helps scientists and
planners create models to simulate trends observed; and monitor climate, weather and water.40

Case Study 10. The Global Climate Observing System

In many developing countries, the high costs and lack of capacity to use information
from satellites are hindrances to better climate related studies and planning. Initiated
by various international agencies including the World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Global Climate
Observing System aims to overcome these barriers with a mechanism for gathering
and sharing information on the earth’s atmosphere, oceans, water bodies and land.

Through this mechanism, countries and scientists can access for research and
planning the following data: CO2 and methane levels, ozone and aerosol properties,
temperature, wind, water vapour and precipitation, surface radiation, essential climate
variables of surfaces and sub-surfaces, sea levels, sea-surface temperature, salinity,
pressure, current monitoring, river discharge and lakes, snow cover, glaciers and
permafrost.

Key points

• Data and information obtained through ICT-enabled observations of the

atmosphere, water and land assists in developing climate change mitigations
measures.
• For developing countries, cooperation mechanisms that support climate related
studies are critical.

Contact information

Global Climate Observing System website: www.wmo.int/pages/prog/gcos/index.php.

40 The use of remote sensing for DRM is discussed in more detail in Primer 3: ICT for Disaster Risk Management. Case studies
on the use of remote sensing for DRM can also be found in APCICT’s ICTD Case Study 2: ICT for Disaster Risk Reduction,
available from http://www.unapcict.org/ecohub/ict-for-disaster-risk-reduction-1.

56 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Case Study 11. Measuring carbon storage by forests in
Nepal

Measurement and early warning methods are critical for developing strategies and
taking actions to respond to climate change. Forests are major carbon sinks. To protect
the 40 per cent forest cover in Nepal, researchers and scientists are working with
communities to calculate the amount of carbon stored in three watersheds. The project
covers over 10,000 hectare of community-managed forests with an outreach of over
16,000 households directly benefiting more than 89,000 forest-dependent people.

Researchers from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

(ICIMOD) used high-resolution satellite imagery together with object-based image
analysis techniques to delineate and classify crown projection area of individual trees
for above-ground biomass estimation. This technique is a way of quantifying carbon
stocks in forests, using an equation based on diameter at breast height of trees
combined with information from remote sensing satellites on the spatial distribution
of forest biomass.

Images source: Eak Bahadur Rana.

Key points

• Using remote sensing, carbon stored in forests can be calculated at reasonable

costs within acceptable accuracy ranges.
• Satellite-borne sensors make it possible to monitor areas that are not readily
accessible and to carry out cost effective measurements in vast areas.

Further reading

ICIMOD, Earth Observation and Climate Change (2011). Available from http://books.
icimod.org/uploads/tmp/icimod-earth_observation_and_climate_change.pdf.
Community REDD website, http://www.communityredd.net.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 57

 4.3 Enhancing the Efficient Use of Energy
Whether or not energy is produced with as little GHG emission as possible, minimizing the
waste of energy is a critical issue for developed and developing countries alike, occurring
when producing, distributing or consuming electricity. Centralized energy infrastructure can
waste more than two-thirds of produced energy.41 In many countries, the energy generation
and distribution system is outdated or inadequate; ICTs can enable countries to leapfrog to the
smart grid electrical power system by enhancing efficiency in energy generation, transmission
or distribution (see case study 12).42

Case Study 12. Small hydropower automatic control

Images source: http://www.acted.org/en/afghanistan-10-years-later-community-development-priority.

Hydropower automatic control systems can improve the operational reliability of

hydropower plants as well as the quality of power output. They reduce the number of
operating personnel required and their workload, raise the operational stability of the
grid and optimize plant operations. Depending on the needs of the power plant and
configuration of equipment, a total computer control system may be designed or used
together with conventional equipment to achieve varying degrees of automatic control.
Already used in rural parts of Afghanistan and Thailand, these systems are applicable
as newly built power plants or for improving the performance of old power plants.

Key points

• Automatic control systems are effective at reducing costs of power production.

• The system is an opportunity to modernize infrastructure and related services.

Further Reading

Siemens, “Small Hydro Power”, http://www.energy.siemens.com/mx/en/

power-generation/renewables/hydro-power/small-hydro-power/.
ACTED, “Afghanistan 10 years later: Community development as a priority”, 7 October 2011,
http://www.acted.org/en/afghanistan-10-years-later-community-development-priority.

41 European Renewable Energy Council and Greenpeace, “Energy [R]evolution. A sustainable world energy outlook Fig. 4.1”, June
2010.
42 IEEE, “IEEE takes the lead on smart grid”, 10 March 2010. Available from http://smartgrid.ieee.org/ieee-smartgrid-news/75-ieee-
takes-the-lead-on-smart-grid.

58 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

4.4 Reducing GHG Emissions through Clean Technologies and
Dematerialization

In the last decade, some investors have considered that the development of clean technologies
(cleantech) not only make business sense but is part of an inescapable trend. This is due to
increasing concerns about the cost and availability of fossil fuels, natural resource shortages,
security issues and global environmental problems such as climate change. Cleantech includes
a diverse range of products, services and processes that harness renewable materials and
energy sources, dramatically reduce the use of natural resources, and cut or eliminate emissions
and wastes.43 Cleantech is a new focus of entrepreneurship and industrial development that
has been attracting researchers, innovators as well as investors.

 
For these reasons, the private sector has since the
early 2000s been actively investing in clean energy
technologies. Growth in the sector is very significant.
The IEA estimates that growth in new-build renewable
energy assets was 85 per cent in 2007. The year 2008
was the first year in which renewable power generation
attracted more investment than traditional fossil fuel-
based power generation.44

As more and more governments encourage the

development of alternative energy resources and
encourage greater efficiency in energy use, these
companies as well as many public and private
sector investors have been actively supporting
the development of cleantech to reduce energy
consumption and/or increase the efficiency of energy
use.

Dematerialization. According to the Climate Group

Smart 2020 Report,45 dematerialization involves “the
substitution of high carbon products and activities
with low carbon alternatives e.g. replacing face-to-
face meetings with videoconferencing, or paper with
e-billing.”

Figure 10. Dematerialization: Using less to

produce more
Image source: http://www.cato.org/blog/dematerialization-update.

43 Wikipedia, “Clean Technology”. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_technology.

44 IEA, World Energy Outlook 2009 (Paris, 2009). Available from http://www.iea.org/textbase/nppdf/free/2009/WEO2009.pdf.
45 The Climate Group, SMART 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age (2009). Available from
http://www.smart2020.org/publications/.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 59

 Dematerialization includes:

• Digitization of materials such as paper, CDs, video tapes, etc. so that content is manipulated
using strictly digital technologies
• Travel replacement technologies such as telepresence technologies and other high definition
high bandwidth videoconferencing systems
• Replacement of brick-and-mortar retail outlets with digital malls and shops and store fronts.
• e-Government – online government services replaces need for physical presence across
a country or jurisdiction
• e-Commerce – online purchasing of goods and services replaces need for physical presence

Dematerialization could have a significant impact on the delivery of government services.

Although e-government is usually associated with enhanced service delivery and increased
process efficiency in terms of workflow, it also can have a significant impact in reducing energy
consumption and GHG emissions. By dematerializing many government services, increased
efficiencies in terms of energy and material use can and are being realized. The advantages
of e-government can be especially important in developing countries where the cost of energy
is high.

In many developing countries, the main benefit of e-government is that it brings government and
government services closer to the people without requiring they consume energy and produce
GHG emissions. For the poor, the benefits are not in terms of reducing energy consumption,
which for them may involve a significant cost, it is really in saving time and money. Dematerializing
government services allow people in more distant or remote areas to take advantage of
government services without having to leave their workplace or home and spend time, money
and releasing GHG when travelling to obtain services face-to-face.

e-Commerce is the equivalent of e-government applied to the private sector. Like e-government,
e-commerce enhances service delivery to the paying public seeking commercially available
goods and services. Workflow and process efficiency improve considerably by allowing for
home-based work. Store fronts can be dematerialized and online market places can replace
brick and mortar shops and shopping centres. Digitizing can be done to certain goods such as
music, reading materials, and film. Benefits from dematerializing include reduced: raw materials
and energy from reproduction; GHG emissions by downloading the digital product instead of
postage; warehouses to store inventories of products, and the energy to heat and/or cool them.

e-Government and e-commerce applications on mobile phones are viable even in countries
limited by the availability of electricity. The Cisco Visual Networking Index 2010-201546 reports that
“48 million people in the world have mobile phones, even though they do not have electricity at
home.” As people use mobile technologies to go online, the demand for e-goods and e-services
is expected to grow exponentially.

46 Cisco, “Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2010–2015”. Available from
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html.

60 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Case Study 13. High-level government officials in Orissa
use videoconferencing for meetings

Image source: eOdisha.com, 2011

An e-government project provided telepresence capabilities in 32 locations in the Indian

state of Orissa. Videoconferencing studios were set up in each district headquarters,
office of the Chief Minister, and the State Assembly. These studios are connected to
the network of the National Informatics Centre, enabling communications throughout
the country. Although the drivers of this initiative were initially techno-centric, over
time, the potential for reducing GHG emissions became apparent.

Key points

• Telepresence and videoconference facilities set up for government at the national

and state levels have the potential to reduce GHG emissions.
• This type of ICT application can reduce travel related costs and serve as models
to be replicated throughout the public sector.

Further reading

Debendra Kumar Mahalik, “Reducing Carbon Emissions through Videoconferencing:

An Indian Case Study” (University of Manchester, 2012). Available from http://www.
niccd.org/sites/default/files/NICCD_Mitigation_Case_Study_VideoConferencing.pdf.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 61

 Case Study 14. Project Panchdeep, India

Image source: Project Panchdeep website, http://esic.nic.in/panchdeep.htm.

Project Panchdeep is an e-government project of the Employee State Insurance

Corporation (ESIC) of India that aims to improve delivery of insurance and health
care services for employers, employees, and state and central government workers.
Users benefit from faster claims processing, and single ID cards issued provide access
to all ESIC facilities, including the use of any hospital or dispensary that are part of
the network. A single unified information system was rolled out to automate ESIC
processes for increased efficiency, transparency and accountability.

The thin-client technology that is being used enables desktop PCs and servers to
be shared by several users. This has significantly brought down the hardware and
software costs related to the project, reduced GHG emissions from the IT production
process and data centres, and reduced e-waste. Thin-clients are considered green
also because they use only about 5 watts of electricity.

Key points

The results of the project include a large database of medical records, computerization
of 144 hospitals, 620 insurance branches, 1,388 dispensaries and clinics, 51 regional
offices of ESIC, and creation of India’s largest fingerprint database. It is an example
of large scale cloud computing (thin client workstations) and implementation of green
IT systems.

Further reading

Project Panchdeep website, http://esic.nic.in/panchdeep.htm.

NComputing website, http://www.ncomputing.com.
K2 Communications, “Wipro selects NComputing platform to power ESIC’s
Project Panchdeep”, http://www.mydigitalfc.com/corporate-releases/wipro-selects-
ncomputing-platform-power-esic%E2%80%99s-project-panchdeep-684.

62 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Case Study 15. The Philippines is leading the way in call
centres

Reflecting maturation in business process outsourcing (BPO), the Philippines has

overtaken India in providing call centre services to large multinational firms located
in countries such as USA. The Filipino’s high level of spoken English makes it ideal
for providing call centre services in the Philippines. This shows that efficiency can be
achieved using ICTs and has the potential to further reduce travel and other related
costs in high carbon emitting countries like USA, while contributing significantly to
developing economies.

As of 2012, increases in the government’s

foreign currency reserves and assets, as
well as higher demand for commercial
offices spaces in the Philippines were both
attributed to growth in BPO according to
the Senate Economic Planning Office.
The Business Processing Association of
Philippines (BPAP) estimates that the BPO-
IT industry has grown at an annual rate of
30 per cent over the last decade.
 
Image source: http://www.fusionbposervices.com/blog/
philippines-bpo-promote-themselves-globally.html.
Key points

• Travel and employee related costs and emission in developed countries can be
reduced by outsourcing business processes to developing countries.
• ICT and human resource development are key to the uptake of BPO.

Further reading

BPAP website, http://www.bpap.org.

Senate Economic Planning Office, Economic Report, March 2012, http://www.senate.
gov.ph/publications/ER%202012-01%20-%20March%202012.pdf.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 63

 4.5 The SMART Transformation
The ICT sector has a unique ability to deliver low-carbon, energy-efficient alternatives to the
current methods of providing goods and services. It can be utilized to make energy consumption
and GHG emissions visible, and then facilitate a radical transformation of infrastructure to
change behaviours, processes, capabilities and systems. ICTs can work coherently with
other technologies to have the greatest impact. This goal can be summarized as the SMART
transformation:47

• Show energy consumption and emissions information, traced across different processes,
including those beyond the ICT sector’s own products and services.
• Monitor energy consumption and emissions across the economy in real time, and thus
provide the data needed to optimize for energy efficiency.
• Account for energy consumption and emissions alongside other key business priorities by
developing appropriate tools.
• Rethink how to live, learn, play and work in a low carbon economy, initially by optimizing
efficiency, but also by providing viable low-cost alternatives to high carbon activities.
• Transform the economy towards low-carbon, energy-efficient business models and practices.

Smart technologies enhance competitiveness and for this reason, they are relevant to emerging
economies and to any country seeking to strengthen their industrial and manufacturing sectors.
Smart technologies are relevant especially if the intention is to compete internationally in global
markets where increasingly, smart technologies are used and can increasingly be accessed
and interacted with, and in some cases controlled via the Internet.

Smart Grids

Renewable energy is a way to improve existing (and largely) inefficient electrical grid systems,
to meet growing energy demands, and to do so in a more sustainable way.

The advantages of renewable energy technologies are that they use widely available energy
sources (such as the wind and the sun) and have a low carbon footprint over the course of their
life cycle. The challenge of using renewable energy sources is that many of these renewable
energy sources are intermittent, and therefore are not readily integrated and used by the existing
electrical grid. Sun, wind, tidal and wave energy power stations only work when there are sun,
wind, tides and waves, respectively; they cannot provide a baseline amount of power for other
types of generating stations.

Smart grids promote the monitoring of power consumption and use over the electricity grid
for more efficient power distribution (routing) and power use by the grid itself. They have the
potential to make greater use of renewable and non-GHG emitting sources of energy, including
supporting decentralized energy production from renewable resources.

47 The Climate Group, SMART 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age (2009). Available from
http://www.smart2020.org/publications/.

64 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Some of the advantages of the smart grid are as follows:48

• More efficient energy routing and thus, the optimization of energy usage, reduction of the
need for excess capacity and increase in power quality and security
• Better monitoring and control of energy and grid components
• Improved data capture and thus, improved outage management
• Two-way flow of electricity and real-time information allowing for the incorporation of green
energy sources, demand-side management and real-time market transactions
• Elements related to smart buildings, smart motors, smart lighting systems, smart vehicles,
electric vehicles, smart transportation systems etc. could function to complement the energy
efficiency of a smart grid.
• Decentralized energy production through the integration of renewable energy sources into
the grid, to reduce carbon-intensive power generation, and enable the grid to respond to
power surges and power outages.

Smart Buildings

The buildings sector consists of residential and commercial buildings, and accounts for about
20 per cent of the total delivered energy consumption in the world, making these the largest
consumer of energy worldwide.49 From an energy perspective, buildings are “complex systems
consisting of the building envelope and its insulation, space heating and cooling systems, water
heating systems, lighting, appliances and consumer products, and business equipment.”50 The
energy efficiency of appliances can also influence energy use. Direct emissions from buildings
account for around 10 per cent of global CO2 emissions, and indirect emissions from the use
of electricity in the sector increases this share to almost 30 per cent.51

IBM estimates that 40 per cent of the world’s current output of raw materials goes into buildings.52
Many of these raw materials and in particular “steel, concrete/cement, bricks and glass require
very high temperatures that can only be reached today by the burning of fossil fuels. It is
considered that today about 10% of all CO2 emissions globally come from the production of
building materials.”53 This amount will be higher in the developing regions of the world as more
new construction is taking place in these countries.

48 OECD, Smart Sensor Networks: Technologies and Applications for Green Growth (Paris, 2009). Available from http://www.oecd.
org/sti/44379113.pdf; and Helen Roeth and others, “ICTs and Climate Change Mitigation in Developing Countries”, Strategy
Brief 4, Climate Change Innovation and ICTs Project, University of Manchester, 2012. Available from http://www.niccd.org/sites/
default/files/ICTs_and_Climate_Change_Mitigation_Strategy_Brief.pdf.
49 US Department of Energy, International Energy Outlook 2010 (Washington D.C., US Energy Information Administration, 2010).
50 IEA, Energy Technology Perspectives 2010 – Scenarios & strategies to 2050 (Paris, 2010). Available from http://www.iea.org/
publications/free_new_Desc.asp?PUBS_ID=2100.
51 Ibid.
52 IBM, Smarter Cities Challenge Report, June 2011. Available from https://www-static.bouldercolorado.gov/docs/
IBM_SmrtCity_SGC_Report-1-201306171551.pdf.
53 European Commission, ICT for a Low Carbon Economy: Smart Buildings – Findings by the High-Level Advisory Group and the
REEB Consortium On the Building and Construction Sector (Brussels, European Commission, 2009). Available from
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/shanghai2010/pdf/smartbuildings-ld_for_press_pack.pdf.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 65

 Case Study 16. The Shanghai Tower

The Shanghai Tower, scheduled for completion in 2014, will be the second tallest
building in China. It will measure 682 metres in height, and have 128 storeys. The
tower was designed and is being built using building information modelling.55 It will be
the first super-tall double-skin building in the world, insulated like a “thermos bottle”
and saving energy.

Organized as nine cylindrical buildings stacked atop each other, it is enclosed by a

glass façade that is designed to be able to reduce wind loads on the building by 24
per cent. This means that less construction materials are needed. The outer layer
twists as it rises, and will collect rainwater to be used for the tower’s air conditioning
and heating systems. Wind turbines will generate power for the building.

Key points

• Building information modelling using computers

is an effective way of designing eco-efficient
buildings that save energy and materials and
promote new ways of addressing climate change.
• Big projects can serve as models for future
building design but requires long-term life cycle
thinking and vision.

Further reading

Gensler Design Update, Shanghai Tower,

http://www.gensler.com/uploads/documents/
Shanghai_Tower_12_22_2010.pdf.  
Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shanghai_Tower,_07-21-2012.JPG.

The State of Asian Cities 2010/11 report states that: “In countries like China, Japan and the
Republic of Korea, buildings—especially high-rise—tend to be made of materials with high
embodied energy (i.e., the materials were energy-intensive to manufacture). On top of this,
building design has little regard for the local environment.”55 In Asia, more than 20,000 new
housing units are needed every day creating a huge demand for construction materials. With this
context, smart building uses ICTs to reduce energy consumption and increase energy efficiency.

Smart building applications include the following:

• Building information modelling software enables architects, planners, engineers and builders
to simulate a building, optimize the energy and material use (water and carbon), streamline
the construction workflow, and allow the user to explore multiple design options.
• The integration of sensors within a building provide information on energy usage and
occupancy patterns
• Home energy management or building management system can automatically manage and
reduce energy consumption, as well as manage distributed energy resources
• Integration of the home or building management system within a network of buildings or
smart grid allows timely response to variations in energy supply and demand.
54 Wikipedia, “Shanghai Tower”, Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Tower.
55 UN Habitat, The State of Asian Cities 2010/11 (Fukuoka, 2010), p. 21. Available from http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/
listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=3078.

66 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Smart Transportation and Logistics

The transport sector generated about 25 per cent of global CO2 emissions in 2008, and 26
per cent oil consumption; and the regional share of CO2 emissions is rising. The bulk of the
emissions came from the road sector (79%), then aviation (13%) and rail (4.4%).56

To help reduce emissions, intelligent transportation systems can be created to optimize transport
via traffic flow monitoring, planning and simulation technologies. ICTs “enable elements within the
transportation system – vehicles, roads, traffic lights, message signs, etc., to become intelligent
by embedding them with microchips and sensors and empowering them to communicate with
each other through wireless technologies.”57

These technologies can be used to reduce congestion and enhance traffic flow in cities. Making
transportation more efficient precludes or at least reduces the need to build more highways by
enhancing the carry efficiency of existing roadways and transportation infrastructure. The use
of real-time traffic data can improve traffic flow by reducing stops by as much as 40 per cent,
travel time by 25 per cent, gas consumption by 10 per cent and reduction in GHG emissions
by 22 per cent. Applications include:58

• Advanced traveller information systems that provide drivers with real-time information about
road and weather conditions, and other related information.
• Advanced transportation management systems that include traffic signals, ramp meters,
variable message signs, and traffic operation centres.
• ITS-enabled transportation pricing systems include systems such as electronic toll collection,
congestion pricing, fee-based express lanes, and vehicle miles-travelled usage-based fee
systems.
• Advanced public transportation systems, for example, allow trains and buses to report their
position so passengers can be informed of their real-time status (arrival and departure
information).

One clear beneficiary to improvements in traffic management is businesses that rely heavily on
logistics. Logistics is the process for optimizing the flow of goods and services while considering
the traffic environment, the traffic congestion and energy consumption within the framework of
a market economy.59 ICTs can enhance the efficiency of logistics by improving:60

• Tracking of materials, processes, goods, and inventory

• Optimizing fuel consumption, length and timing of travel, frequency of deliveries
• Navigation of new routes using onboard navigation systems

56 UNESCAP, Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific 2011 (Bangkok, 2011). Available from http://www.unescap.org/stat/data/
syb2011/.
57 Stephen Ezell, Explaining International IT Application Leadership: Intelligent Transportation Systems, (Washington, D.C.,
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, 2010). Available from http://www.itif.org/publications/explaining-international-
it-application-leadership-intelligent-transportation-systems.
58 Ibid.
59 Eiichi Taniguchi and others, City Logistics: Network Modelling and Intelligent Transport Systems (Amsterdam, Pergamon, 2001).
60 Helen Roeth and others, “ICTs and Climate Change Mitigation in Developing Countries”, Strategy Brief 4, Climate Change
Innovation and ICTs Project, University of Manchester, 2012. Available from http://www.niccd.org/sites/default/files/ICTs_and_
Climate_Change_Mitigation_Strategy_Brief.pdf.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 67

 Case Study 17. Kuala Lumpur’s integrated transport
information system

Images source: Integrated Transport Information System website, http://www.itis.com.my/atis/index.jsf.

A comprehensive traffic information system was developed to monitor traffic flow

and analyse the data on road conditions in the Klang Valley,62 and to provide useful
traffic information to road users. ICTs used include networked computer systems,
databases, closed-circuit TV cameras, and other sensors. The Transport Management
Centre processes images from closed-circuit television cameras combined with
automated information from an incident detection system and a vehicle location
system. All services are available free of charge for users through a range of media.
The benefits include:

• Improved trip planning, reduced travel time and increased safety for commuters
• Long-term planning for transport, security and emergency response by authorities
• Reduced traffic congestion and reduced pollution due to less time spent idling

Key points

• Road users can enjoy reduced congestion and easier travel, and less GHG
emissions.
• Experts analyse real-time video and images, congestion maps, and incident maps.
• Information is shared using message sign boards, websites, and mobile devices.
• A call centre is available for people to call in for information.

Further reading

Integrated Transport Information System website, http://www.itis.com.my/atis/index.jsf.

61 Klang Valley is an area in Malaysia comprising Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs, and adjoining cities and towns in the state of
Selangor. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klang_Valley.

68 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Points To Remember

• Climate change mitigation is undertaken to reduce CO2 and other GHGs. The
goal is to minimize the negative impacts on the natural environment and abate
climate change.

• Societies can explore technologies for climate change mitigation and assess
their potential to adopt or adapt these technologies in their jurisdictions. These
technologies can facilitate environmental observation, enhance the efficient use
of energy, and reduce GHG emissions through dematerialization. Some limited
applications could have a very large impact in the amount of energy saved.

• The greatest inefficiencies in energy use come from producing, distributing

and consuming electricity. In developing countries, smart grid projects are an
opportunity to leapfrog other countries in modernizing the electrical grid.

• Countries and municipalities can start small first. For example, converting
households to using smart meters is usually a very useful first step towards
smart grids because they immediately show the consumer how much energy is
consumed in relation to specific behaviours, for example turning on the television.

• Smart transformation is a set of ICT-enabled technologies that can help to better

understand and monitor energy consumption and emissions, optimize efficiency,
and promote a low-carbon economy.

Something To Do

The Climate Challenge Simulation

http://www.planetseed.com/files/flash/
science/features/earth/climate/en/
challenge/index.htm?width=835&height=6
80&popup=true

The challenge: choose the right option to

keep CO2 in the atmosphere below the level
of 450 ppm.
 
Let’s assume that countries are targeting to keep emissions below 450 ppm. The next
question is how do we achieve this? This simulation presents the earth’s atmosphere as a
bathtub. Using the principle of “stock and flow”, the simulation allows CO2 to accumulate
like water filling the bathtub, while carbon removal is the drain at the bottom. The “flow” is
how much CO2 goes in and how much goes out. Read more about the simulation and the
science behind it at:
http://www.planetseed.com/relatedarticle/climate-challenge-our-choices.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 69

 Youth in Action

Today’s young people are exploring earth observation on their own initiative, utilizing
readily available ICTs to help satisfy their curiosity.

Matthijs Tissen, a 16-year-old Dutch boy, took 6,000 photos of the Netherlands
from 35 km in near space (see photo above). His set-up consisted of a helium-filled
weather balloon, a digital camera that took a photo every two seconds, and a GPS
tracker that transmitted coordinates to a website. On his own, he planned “Flight
Level 1200,” looked for sponsors, and then launched his camera. Visit the project
website here: http://www.fl1200.nl/. Read more at: http://www.gim-international.
com/news/remote_sensing/aerial_photography/id7344-dutch_schoolboy_
photographs_earth_from_35_kilometres_up.html?utm_source=20130423+GIM+333&utm_
medium=email&utm_campaign=20130423+GIM+333.

Some kids have sent toys into space as well. Lauren

Rojas, a 7th-grade girl from the United States launched
a Hello Kitty doll 28.5 km into near space. Watch
Hello Kitty’s journey here: http://www.youtube.com/
watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5REsCTG4-
Gg and see the view from up there. Read more
about the project and others at: http://www.space.
com/19740-girl-sends-hello-kitty-into-stratosphere.
html.
 

70 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Test Yourself

1. Climate change mitigation refers to actions that reduce the impacts of greenhouse gases
upon societies and the environment. True or False?
(Hint: This may be a tricky question; re-read section 4.1 for the answer)

2. Which of the following can be used to observe the environment? Select the best answer.

a. Sensors that measure greenhouse gas emissions

b. Sensors that measure sea surface temperature
c. Satellite images that can indicate biomass
d. All of the above

3. Which of the following statements is correct? (See section 4.3 for the answer)

a. ICTs can promote efficient energy production

b. ICTs can promote efficient energy distribution
c. ICTs can promote efficient energy consumption
d. All of the above

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 71

 A Challenge!

Guided by your teacher, design a spreadsheet to calculate household carbon footprints. It

should assign points for specific actions. At the end, it calculates how many planets just like
Earth that would be needed if every household has the same lifestyle.62

1. Create a spreadsheet file and name it CarbonCalc.

2. Make six columns for: Category, Question, Answers, Choice, Value, and Points. Put the
headers in Row 1.
3. Type up the data found after these instructions. Put each possible answer on its own row.
Finish typing in all the questions and possible answers before continuing. Including the
header, you should reach Row 126.
4. Put a default value of zero “0” at each row under the column “Choice”.
5. Put the value of each possible answer under the column “Value”.
6. At Row 2 under “Points” type in the equation =D2*E2.
7. Copy the equation and paste it for all the rows with a possible answer (see example).
8. At the very bottom, go to the cell just beneath the cell with the last entry containing the
equation. Click on the Autosum sign ∑ to add up all the values above it (at this point, it
should add up to 0).
9. Go to the cell to the right of the one containing the Autosum. Type in =F127/350 to find out
how many planet Earths would be needed to sustain humanity if everyone had the same
lifestyle as you.
10. How to use the calculator: Answer all questions by choosing just one from all possible
answers. In the “Choice” column, change the value from 0 to 1 in the row corresponding
to your selected answer.

In the example below, answer to question 1 “My shower on a typical day” is “Short shower
once a day”, with a value of 50 points. The answer to question 4 “We use water-saving
toilets” is “Yes”, with a value of -20 points.

Example of spreadsheet entries:

62 This is taken from the Ecological Footprint Calculator developed by Conneticut Energy Education. Download the tool and
learning resources at: http://www.ctenergyeducation.com/lesson.htm?id=fqe4v3ol.

72 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Data entries for the spreadsheet

Categories and Questions Answers and Equivalent Points

Water 1. My shower (or bath) on a No shower / no bath (0)
typical day is: Short shower 3-4 time a week (25)
Short shower once a day (50)
Long shower once a day (70)
More than one shower per day (90)
2. I flush the toilet: Every time I use it (40)
Sometimes (20)
3. When I brush my teeth: I let the water run (40)
I don’t let the water run (0)
4. We use water-saving toilets Yes (-20)
No (0)
5. We use low-flow shower- Yes (-20)
heads No (0)
Food 1. On a typical day, I eat: Meat more than once per day (600)
Meat once per day (400)
Meat a couple times a week (300)
Vegetarian (200)
Vegan (150)
2. All of my food is grown locally Yes (-20)
or is organic No (0)
3. I compost my fruit/vegetable Yes (-10)
scraps and peels. No (0)
4. Most of my food is Yes (20)
processed. No (20)
5. Little of my food has Yes (20)
packaging. No (0)
6. On a typical day, I waste: None of my food (0)
One-fourth of my food (25)
One-third of my food (50)
Half of my food (100)

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 73

 Categories and Questions Answers and Equivalent Points
Transport 1. On a typical day, I travel by: Foot or bike (0)
Public transit / school bus (30)
Private vehicle; carpool (100)
Private vehicle; 1 person (200)
2. Our vehicle’s fuel efficiency More than 13 km/litre (-50)
is: 10-13 km/litre (50)
For efficiency values, see: 7-10 km/litre (100)
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/ Less than 7 km/litre (200)
feg/findacar.shtml
3. The time I spend in vehicles No time (0)
on a typical day is: Less than half an hour (40)
Half an hour to 1 hour (100)
More than 1 hour (200)
4. How big is the car in which I No car (-20)
travel on a typical day? Small (50)
Medium (100)
Large (SUV) (200)
5. Number of cars in our drive- No car (-20)
way? Less than 1 car per driver (0)
One car per driver (50)
More than 1 car per driver (100)
More than 2 cars per driver (200)
6. Number of flights I take per 0 (0)
year? 1-2 (50)
More than 2 (100)
Shelter 1. My house is: Single house on large lot (50)
Single house on small lot (city) (0)
Townhouse/ attached house (0)
Apartment (-50)
2. Divide number of rooms in 1 room per person or less (-50)
the home (no baths) by the 1-2 rooms per person (0)
number of people living at 2-3 rooms per person (100)
home. more than 3 rooms per person (200)
3. We own a second, or Yes (200)
vacation home that is often No (0)
empty.

74 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Categories and Questions Answers and Equivalent Points
Energy 1. In cold months, our house temperature Under 15oC (-20)
is: 15 to 18 oC (50)
19 to 22 oC (100)
22 oC or more (150)

We don’t use one (-20)

Or if you don’t have cold months 27 oC or more (50)
In summer, our house air conditioning is 22 oC to 27 oC (100)
set to: Under 22 oC (150)
2. We dry clothes outdoors or on an Always (-50)
indoor rack. Sometimes (20)
Never (60)
3. We use an energy-efficient refrigerator. Yes (-50)
No (50)
4. We have a second refrigerator / Yes (100)
freezer. No (0)
5. We use 5 or more compact fluorescent Yes (-50)
light bulbs. No (100)
6. I turn off lights, computer, and televi- Yes (0)
sion when they’re not in use. No (50)
7. To cool off, I use: Air conditioning: car (50)
Air conditioning: home (100)
Electric fan (-10)
Nothing (-50)
8. My clothes washer is a: Top load (100)
Front load (50)
Laundromat (25)
Clothing 1. I change my outfit every day and put it Yes (80)
in the laundry. No (0)
2. I am wearing clothes that have been Yes (-20)
mended or fixed. No (0)
3. One-fourth (or more) of my clothes are Yes (-20)
handmade or secondhand. No (0)
4. Most of my clothes are purchased new Yes (200)
each year. No (0)
5. I donate clothes that I no longer wear. Yes (-50)
No (100)
6. I never wear _____ % of the clothes in Less than 25% (25)
my closet. 50% (50)
75% (75)
More than 75% (100)
7. I buy_____ new pairs of shoes every 0-1 (0)
year. 2 to 3 (20)
4 to 6 (60)
7 or more (90)

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 75

 Categories and Questions Answers and Equivalent
Points
Waste 1. All my garbage from today could fit into a: Shoebox (20)
Small garbage can (60)
Kitchen garbage can (200)
No garbage created today! (-50)
2. I recycle all my paper, cans, glass and Yes (-100)
plastic. No (0)

3. I reuse items rather than throw them out. Yes (-20)

No (0)
4. I repair items rather than throw them out Yes (-20)
No (0)
5. I avoid disposable items as often as Yes (-50)
possible. No (60)
6. I use rechargeable batteries whenever I Yes (-30)
can. No (0)
7. In my home we have __ number of 0-5 (25)
Electronics? (Computer, TV, Stereo, VCR, 5-10 (75)
DVD, X box, Game boy, etc.) 10-15 (100)
more than 15 (200)
8. How much equipment is needed for None (0)
typical activities? A lot =boat, snowmobiles, Very little (20)
dirt bikes ,Very little soccer, bicycling ) Some (60)
A lot (80)

76 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

5. ICT for green growth and
sustainable development

Objectives:
• Be familiar with the Green Growth concept
• Appreciate the potential for the ICT industry to be part of Green Growth
• Develop a short essay or think piece on how to personally contribute to Green
Growth

5.1 What is Green Growth

Green Growth is a way to pursue economic growth and development, while preventing
environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and unsustainable natural resource use. It builds
on existing sustainable development initiatives in many countries and aims at identifying cleaner
sources of growth, including seizing the opportunities to develop new green industries, jobs
and technologies, while also managing the structural changes associated with the transition
to a greener economy.63

UNESCAP presents Green Growth and Green Economy as a new development paradigm,
wherein economic development and environmental sustainability reinforce each other. It requires
“integrated strategies that support systemic change in integrated, complementary and mutually
reinforcing ways.”64 Looking towards the environment as a partner, investments are encouraged
in economic activities that build on and enhance the earth’s natural capital. Green Growth
focuses on reducing ecological scarcities and environmental risks, and promoting sustainable
agriculture and forest management, and sustainable fisheries. Green Growth also includes
activities that reduce GHG emissions and save energy, such as the development of renewable
energy, low-carbon transport, and energy- and water-efficient buildings.

The idea is basically a new paradigm on how to run an economy in a way that limits environmental
degradation and ensures prosperity.65

5.2 What Drives the Move to Green Growth

The Asia Pacific region is growing rapidly. The region has become the world’s largest resource
user, consuming about 60 per cent of global resources. Even though the economic slowdown
of 2008-2009 has reduced growth rates, these have started moving up again as of late 2009
and 2010. The continued growth has been attributed to the success of poverty reduction efforts,
rapid urbanization and a growing middle or consuming class.

This growth, however, is accompanied by increasing demands for energy, land, natural resources
and ecosystem services. The projected resources requirements in the Asia Pacific region are
such that they will exceed the earth’s carrying capacity in the region. In fact, as of 2010, insecurity
about food, water and energy supplies remains very high; even though the region has moved
to promote environmentally sustainable development.

63 OECD, Interim Report of the Green Growth Strategy: Implementing our Commitment for a Sustainable Future (2010). Available
from http://www.oecd.org/document/3/0,3746,en_2649_201185_45196035_1_1_1_1,00.html.
64 UN and ADB, Green Growth, Resources and Resilience: Environmental Sustainability in Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok, 2012),
p. xv. Available from http://www.unescap.org/esd/environment/flagpubs/GGRAP.
65 Stacy Feldman, “Green Growth, South Korea’s National Policy, Gaining Global Attention”, Solve Climate News, 26 January
2011. Available from http://bit.ly/ifvdQt.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 77

 As a result, several countries are looking at improving the efficiency of energy and natural
resource utilization. The countries of the Asia Pacific realize that business as usual is just not
possible. Here are some facts about the Asia Pacific region that drive support for Green Growth:66

• By the start of the 21st century, the region had become the world’s largest resource user. It
was consuming 35 billion tons of metal ores, industrial minerals, fossil fuels, construction
minerals and biomass each year. This is equivalent to 60 per cent of global material
consumption.
• As of 2005, to produce one unit of GDP the region required three times the input of resources
as the rest of the world.
• During most of the last four decades, the region’s energy use grew faster than global
energy use.
• In 2008, the region used 45 per cent of global primary energy.
• From 1990 to 2005, regional GHG emissions rose from 14.5 billion to 19.5 billion tons.
• In 2000, the region used 2,383 billion m3 of water in agriculture, manufacturing industries
and households, or about 63 per cent of the water used globally.
• The regional average water use of 644 m3 per capita was above the world average of 619
m3 per capita. North and Central Asia was the largest water user at 1,011 m3 per capita.

During the 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Seoul in 2005,
UNESCAP received a mandate to promote Green Growth as a strategy to achieve sustainable
development while at the same time achieving Millennium Development Goals Target 1 on
poverty reduction and Target 7 on environmentally sustainability.67 The conference resulted in
a regional implementation plan for sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region with the
objectives of: improving eco-efficiency for environmental sustainability; enhancing environmental
performance; environmental protection for sustainable growth; and integrating disaster risk
management and preparedness in socio-economic development policies and planning.

Several regional programmes and activities have been launched to help achieve the objectives
agreed to in 2005. These include the following regional and international initiatives:

• The Green Jobs Initiative led by UNEP, the International Labour Organization, the
International Organization of Employers, and the International Trade Union Confederation.
A report that emerged from the Green Jobs Initiative sparked interest in the potential for
creating green jobs in developing countries.
• UNESCAP’s Green Growth online e-learning facility offers a set of interactive modules to
learn about the fundamentals of Green Growth, liveable cities, the low carbon Green Growth
road map, and sustaining growth. Case studies are also available, and certificates are issued
for each successfully completed module. The courses are designed for all stakeholders
involved in a country’s transition to Green Growth.68
• UNESCAP developed the Low-Carbon Green Growth Roadmap for Asia and the Pacific69
as a guide for policymakers in the region on overcoming the challenges from resource
constraints and the climate crisis. The Roadmap identifies five main tracks on which to
drive the system change for low carbon Green Growth, with factsheets and case studies
for each track available online:70

66 Source: UN and ADB, Green Growth, Resources and Resilience: Environmental Sustainability in Asia and the Pacific (2012),
pp. 25-27. Available from http://www.unescap.org/esd/environment/flagpubs/GGRAP.
67 UNESCAP, “Preview. Green Growth, Resources and Resilience. Environmental sustainability in Asia and the Pacific, 2010”,
(United Nations, 2010).
68 UNESCAP Green Growth online e-learning, http://www.greengrowth-elearning.org/lms/.
69 UNESCAP, Low-Carbon Green Growth Roadmap for Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok, 2012). Available from http://www.unescap.
org/esd/environment/lcgg/.
70 Factsheets and case studies are available from http://www.unescap.org/esd/environment/lcgg/case-studies-fact-sheets.asp.

78 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

1. Improving the quality of growth and maximizing net growth
2. Changing the invisible structure of the economy: Closing the gap between economic and
ecological efficiencies
3. Changing the visible structure of the economy: Planning and designing eco-efficient
infrastructure
4. Turning green into a business opportunity
5. Formulating and implementing low-carbon development strategies

5.3 Role of ICTs in Achieving Green Growth

The key ICT driven Green Growth initiatives in terms of their impact on reducing GHG emissions
and fossil fuel consumption are:

• Smart grids because of the major reliance on fossil fuels for energy generation and the
important efficiencies that a modern ICT-enabled electrical generation and distribution system
can help realize. Smart grids are essential for integrating renewable energy resources and
driving an efficient energy market.
• Smart buildings, because of the importance of buildings and the rapid rate of urbanization
worldwide.
• Smart transportation and logistics systems, including smart supply chains. These ICT driven
innovations will make business more energy efficient.
• Smart motors – any motor or electricity driven task or application can be controlled by
a microprocessor. This can lead to significant energy savings and reductions in GHG
emissions.
• ICTs for helping people to learn about the impact of their behaviour in terms of energy use,
GHG emissions and environmental impacts. By allowing rapid display of effort, energy and
natural resources consumed, we are in a better position to understand the impacts of our
behaviour and modify them accordingly.

ICTs facilitate the efficiency gains that many Green Growth initiatives depend on. All of the
smart interventions mentioned in this Primer depend on ICTs for their implementation. Smart
cities are not smart without ICTs to allow the linkages, communication and control systems that
a smart city requires.

The ITU e-Environment Report71 recommends strengthening the capacity of developing countries
to use ICTs for environmental action: management, conservation and sustainable development.
To do this, the report recommends developing a strategic planning framework for mitigating
climate change that is based on ICTs, and an e-environment action plan.

An ICT-based strategy could identify and assess the opportunities for using ICTs to mitigate
climate change, while at the same time considering the costs and tradeoffs. The strategy
could look at leveraging international support and goodwill, and promoting Green Growth
opportunities in the local market place.72 The goals of the strategy could include measures to
reduce environmental impact, energy use and the emission of GHGs while at the same time
promote economic, human and social development.

71 ITU, ICTs for e-Environment: Guidelines for Developing Countries with a Focus on Climate Change (Geneva, 2008). Available
from http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/app/docs/itu-icts-for-e-environment.pdf.
72 Ibid.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 79

Case Study 18. Thimpu Tech Park

Bhutan has abundant hydroelectric resources

that can provide reliable, relatively lower cost
and greener power for data centre operators.
Bhutan’s year round cool climate makes it
cheaper to cool these centres. Catering to
domestic and international clients, Bhutan Data
Centre Services is located within the Thimphu
Tech Park (TTP) and adheres to international
standards for data centre operation including
  disaster resilient construction.
Image source: http://www.databhutan.com/.

A second Internet gateway was opened in March 2012 to increase connectivity and
redundancy. Investments are taking place in broadband infrastructure and business
services and facilities that are needed to attract data centre services providers, among
others, to the IT Park.

TTP is the first IT Park in Bhutan and the government is creating business incentives
as well as developing human resources to attract companies and investors. Aimed
at promoting the entrepreneurial spirit within the country, the initiative includes a new
business technology centre and a new business incubation centre.

Key points

By capitalizing on comparative geophysical and human resource advantages,

the Government of Bhutan is promoting greener development opportunities.
Hydroelectricity use and cooler weather reduces ICT-related emissions that contribute
to climate change.

Further reading

Thimpu Tech Park website, http://www.thimphutechpark.com.

Bhutan Data Centre Services website, http://www.databhutan.com.
 Case Study 19. Using earth observation satellites for low-
emission climate resilient development in Maldives

Images source: Victoria Wittig, “Climate & Development Vulnerabilities in Laamu Atoll”, presentation of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (undated).

The Government of Maldives, jointly with regional development partners, has initiated
a project to promote Low Emission Climate Resilient Development. Earth observation
satellite images and sensors together with climate change risk data and information
are used as part of the assessment and monitoring activities.

The population and ecosystem are affected by climate change and the at-risk areas
that need to be addressed include fisheries, agriculture, coasts, water, waste, health
and energy. The aim of the project is to build resilient communities and promote low
emissions development to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change in the
Maldives.

Key points

• Critical to a country’s Green Growth strategy are building climate-resilient

communities and promoting low emissions development that employs new ways
of doing things.
• The use of satellite sensor technology is helpful for monitoring emissions.
• In developing countries, governments can work jointly with regional development
partners to develop comprehensive projects that address sustainable and eco-
efficient development.

Further reading

Project website, http://www.undp.org.mv/v2/?lid=228.

Chapter 5 of the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2012. Available from http://www.unescap.
org/idd/pubs/Asia-Pacific-Disaster-Report-2012.pdf.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 81

 Case Study 20. Solar energy in Turkmenistan

Images source: CAREN, “CAREN helps harness Turkmenistan’s sunshine”, Case Study (undated). Available from
http://caren.dante.net/Media_Centre/Documents/solar_case_study_FINAL.pdf.

Turkmenistan enjoys 7.4 hours of sunshine per day, and the government has made
solar power a strategic priority. Through distance learning and skills transfer via high
speed Central Asian CAREN and pan-European GÉANT research networks, the
required engineering skills and technology needs are being acquired.

The Gün Institute’s solar pavilion provides a real-time test-bed to study the local
performance of solar technology for the effects of radiation, wind speed and dust,
humidity, solar strength, power output, temperature, and atmospheric conditions on
solar power production. Real-time performance data will be integral to a planned
advanced control and monitoring system.

A high speed ICT-based e-learning platform called e-sapak facilitates real-time sharing
of solar energy-related information and data among experts and researchers from
universities in Spain, Germany and Portugal, and those from Gün Institute. Specialists
from Europe have trained local engineers in solar technology harnessing skills, based
on the knowledge gained through the performance monitoring component of the
project. Content, lessons, videoconferencing and learning resources have resulted
in over 700 people being trained.

Key points

• Building ICT driven networks of sensors for monitoring and sharing research is
an important first step in developing green energy sources.
• This new area of development requires collaboration and cooperation that support
green energy and climate related studies.

Further reading and contact information

CAREN, “CAREN helps harness Turkmenistan’s sunshine”, Case Study (undated).

Available from http://caren.dante.net/Media_Centre/Documents/solar_case_study_
FINAL.pdf.

Contacts:
Mr. Charyyar Amansahedov, Academy of Science of Turkmenistan, amansakhatov@
yandex.ru.
Mr. Askar Kutanov, Central Asian Research and Education Network, National Academy
of Sciences, Kyrgyz Republic, askarktnv@gmail.com.

82 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Case Study 21. China’s SMART grid development

The State Grid Cooperation of China, the largest utility provider in the world, has
embarked on smart grid development and roll-out to be completed by 2015 with planned
improvements until 2020. Some interesting features include the use of wind power and
the setting up of vehicle charging stations to encourage hybrid and electrical vehicle
use. The use of ICT to make the system efficient and integrated is at the heart of the
initiative. As part of China’s overarching strategy, mini-grids for rural electrification
using renewable sources is also being pursued. A step approach is adopted whereby
the needs of the public are initially catered to by providing electricity for household
use through mini-grids.

Key points

• ICTs form the foundation for developing smart

grids.
• State-level drive to develop smart grids is
necessary to push this type of Green Growth
strategy.
 
Image source: State Grid Corporation of China, “Smart Grid Implementation and Standardization in China”,
presentation, November 2011. Available from http://www.smartgrid.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/6___Changyi.pdf.

Further reading

UNESCAP, Low Carbon Green Growth Roadmap for Asia and the Pacific: Case Study
- China’s mini-grids for rural electrification, http://www.unescap.org/esd/environment/
lcgg/documents/roadmap/case_study_fact_sheets/Case%20Studies/CS-China-mini-
grids-for-rural-electrification.pdf.
State Grid Corporation of China, “Smart Grid Implementation and Standardization
in China”, presentation, November 2011, http://www.smartgrid.com/wp-content/
uploads/2011/09/6___Changyi.pdf.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 83

 Case Study 22. Jeju’s renewable energy micro-grid

Using an advanced ICT-enabled network of power generation and climate measurement

tools, the Jeju Island micro-grid is a state-of-the-art solution to addressing climate
change and efficient energy production and distribution. Primarily reliant on renewable
energy, this initiative is part of the vision for building a nationwide smart grid. Starting
with smart grid test-bed set-up in 2009, it is a model for a planned nationwide roll-out
by 2030.

Key points

• ICT can enable scale-up of micro-grids.

• Improvements in renewable energy efficiency can promote Green Growth.

 
Image source: IBM, EMS Strategy: EMS Adoption in a Micro Grid Solution & EMS Standardization (2010). Available
from http://www.smartgrid.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/12___Richard.pdf.

Further reading

Ministry of Knowledge Economy, “Smart Renewable – Case Study: SG Jeju

Demonstration Site”, presentation, http://www.smartgrid.com/wp-content/
uploads/2011/09/3___Yong_Ha_Park____KSGW_SR_Case_StudyPOSCO.pdf.

84 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Case Study 23. Green growth and green procurement in
Viet Nam

As part of its Green Growth strategy, the Government of Viet Nam is introducing an
electronic bidding system (e-procurement) for public procurement as a first step. The
system intends to improve efficiency and transparency, and is part of the green industry
growth strategy of the country. The system will promote life cycle cost calculation
rather than short-term costs, as well as promote transparency in the government’s
purchasing of goods and services.

Given the significant purchasing power and regulatory influence of governments,

green public procurement has the potential to shift market practices to adopt greener
approaches. Efforts in Viet Nam, as well as in other countries such as China and India,
are also intended to focus green industrial growth in selected sectors that can have
a bigger impact on promoting sustainable development.

Key points

• ICT-enabled green public procurement is

a new and emerging way of carrying out
critical procurement functions within the
public sector.
• Life cycle cost calculation and improved
transparency are characteristics of such
improvements in procurement.

 Image source: http://www.shafferdesignworks.com/CUQuarterly/Q22008/NetworkingMidAtlMeeting.html.

Further reading

International Institute for Sustainable Development, Procurement, Innovation and

Green Growth: The story so far... (Manitoba, 2012). Available from www.iisd.org/
pdf/2012/procurement_innovation_green_growth.pdf.
Responsible Purchasing Network website, http://www.responsiblepurchasing.org.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 85

 Case Study 24. Integrated stormwater management system
in Cebu

Image source: Rene Burt N. Llanto and Juan Edgar C. Osorio, “Eco-Efficient Water Infrastructure Development in the
Philippines: Integrated Storm Water Management in Cebu”, presentation made at the Third Regional Workshop on
Eco-Efficient Water Infrastructure in Asia, Bangkok, Thailand (undated).

Responding to increasing demand for water, reducing water supply in aquifers,

rainwater wastage, mismanagement of untreated wastewater, and inadequate flood
management, a pilot project was initiated in Cebu City, the Philippines, to highlight
the benefits of integrated stormwater management.

The system’s components included rainwater collection, primary rainwater treatment,

a micro-membrane filtration system, and a water treatment facility for reusing. These
components were tested for feasibility, and then installed in a facility to cover the pilot
area. Rainfall data analysis, and monitoring and controlling systems for remote areas
were further facilitated through the use of ICTs. Using computing simulation modelling,
the system resulted in 75 per cent reduction in dependency on the main aquifer. It
replenished water supply, enabled sound flood management, and is a good way to
raise public awareness on the benefits of such systems.

Key points

• Computer simulation and ICT linked sensors and data analysis are important in
developing and operating integrated water management systems.
• Better use of water resources, rainwater, management of wastewater and flood
management are critical in fast urbanizing cities.

Further reading

UNESCAP, Low Carbon Green Growth Roadmap for Asia and the Pacific: Case
Study - Philippines’ integrated stormwater management, http://www.unescap.org/esd/
environment/lcgg/documents/roadmap/case_study_fact_sheets/Case%20Studies/
CS-Philippines-Integrated-Stormwater-Management.pdf.

86 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

 Points To Remember

• Green Growth is a way to pursue economic growth and development, while

preventing environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and unsustainable natural
resource use.
• The inefficient use of resources and energy within the Asia Pacific region is expected
to lead to unsustainable growth, and drives the move to promote Green Growth
as a strategy for sustainable and equitable development.
• ICTs could be utilized to reduce environmental impact, energy use and the emission
of GHGs while at the same time promoting social and economic development.

Something To Do

As a student, you have now an opportunity to think about the direction in life that you
would like to pursue. While we would rather anticipate employment and a successful
career after graduation, we should also add considerations of whether we are working
in a way that is not harmful to other people or to the environment now and in the future.
Have you thought about working in a green job?

The International Labour Organization defines a job as green when it helps reduce
negative environmental impact ultimately leading to environmentally, economically and
socially sustainable enterprises and economies. Think about the job or profession that
you are currently interested in, and see if it is listed in any of these green jobs websites:

• http://greenjobs.com
• http://www.greenjobs.co.uk
• http://www.greenjobs.ie
• http://www.goodwork.ca
• http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/greendreamjobs.main/?CFI
D=3843046&CFTOKEN=33356893

Is your job interest found in any of these sites? If no, are there any listed jobs that you
are willing to consider instead of your original preferred profession?

Write down a three- to five-sentence essay for yourself, describing a green job that
you could like, and why this job can be personally satisfying.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 87

 Conclusion

The mainstreaming of ICTs in all aspects of human endeavour has enabled significant
transformations in the way we work and live. This Primer has outlined some of these and
their potential for abating climate change and promoting sustainable development. With the
appearance and convergence of the technological trends noted in this Primer, we are now also
acquiring the ability to understand and learn from our environment in ways that were never
even considered possible until now.

Much remains to be done to take full advantage of some of these technologies, and still,
technological development continues and will likely result in even more useful applications that
can be more readily and at lower cost be applied in both the developed and developing worlds.

In order for countries and development stakeholders to be able to take advantage of some of
the issues and recommendations made here, awareness of the potential of ICTs for abating
climate change must continue to be promoted. This is where the students of this Primer have
an important role to play.

This Primer cannot and does not intend to cover everything that ICTs could do to help countries,
organizations, communities and people prepare for a rapidly changing climate. Primer 4 users
(teachers and students) need to explore the knowledge resources identified in this Primer and
ask themselves to what extent they are appropriate to their own needs and circumstances. They
need to continue with the research work that this Primer has started. They need to undertake
their own enquiries and do their own discovery work to adapt this knowledge and experience
to their own needs.

A local needs assessment should be undertaken before the Primer is taught. This will help
identify priority areas that need to be emphasized during the course, and the course content be
adapted accordingly to meet demands. In particular, local case studies and teacher-generated
exercises would be most useful.

Users of this Primer are encouraged to contribute their own experience and knowledge by
sharing them on e-Co Hub (http://www.unapcict.org/ecohub) that UN-APCICT has established
for this purpose. In this way, the work that has gone into Primer 4 can continue and be shared.

88 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

SUMMARY

The following key points were discussed in this Primer:

1. Climate change is a worldwide challenge. While most decision makers are aware of the
threats posed by climate change, awareness of the options for abating climate change using
smart technologies and ICTs is only now becoming apparent. This Primer provides details
on a wide range of ICT-based solutions that are being used to address the challenges of
climate change.

2. The Primer examines the important role that ICTs can play in enhancing environmental
observation, interaction and management, and in abating climate change. It addresses how
ICTs contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation.

3. As governments and the private sector recognize the fact that energy resources are limited
and increasingly expensive, and that a high carbon economy may no longer be desirable
or even possible, the Primer describes the shift to an environmentally friendly form of
development that is captured in the concept of Green Growth. It highlights the essential
role of ICTs in encouraging innovation and achieving Green Growth. The relationship of
these concepts to developing countries is explored.

4. This Primer will help students understand the issues and build their capacity to identify
opportunities for using ICTs to tackle climate change effects.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 89

 Glossary

Adaptation to Initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human
climate change systems against actual or expected climate change effects. Various types
of adaptation exist, e.g. anticipatory and reactive, private and public,
and autonomous and planned. Examples include raising river or coastal
dykes, and the substitution of more temperature shock resistant plants
for sensitive ones.
Biofuels Combustible renewables and waste comprised of solid biomass, liquid
biomass, biogas, industrial waste and municipal waste used for energy
purposes.
Carbon capture A controversial practice that is being considered as a way of directly
and storage reducing GHG emissions from burning fossil fuels by removing or
“capturing” the atmospheric CO2 generated during combustion using
a variety of technologies and industrial processes for removing or
scrubbing the CO2 from the effluent gases in fossil fueled power plants.
Carbon footprint A measurement of all GHGs we individually produce and has units of
tonnes (or kg) of CO2 equivalent.
Cleantech Clean technologies to reduce energy use or increase the efficiency of
energy use.
Climate change A change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity,
alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and is in addition to
natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.
Cloud computing Applications and digital services that reside exclusively on the Internet,
that is they are located on server systems (i.e. large number of powerful
computers that are networked) and can only be accessed using the
Internet.
Combustion A measure of how efficiently conventional fuels are burned by a particular
efficiency device or machine.
Crowdsourcing A new web-based business model that harnesses the creative solutions
of a distributed network of individuals through what amounts to an
open call for proposals, and is used for obtaining feedback and data,
information and in some cases, as a way of distributing or sharing work
and effort.
Dematerialization The substitution of high carbon products and activities with low carbon
technology alternatives e.g. videoconferencing for face-to-face meetings, e-billing
for paper.
Digitization The changing of manual processes to digital ones.
Earth-based sensor Terrestial, ICT-based technologies that are used to understand the global
environment.
Geothermal power The constant temperature of the earth creates underground sources
of heat, hot water and steam that become fuel to produce geothermal
energy. Modern technology can access the geothermal energy by drilling,
and then uses the heat or hot water to create power.
Global positioning A system consisting of 25 satellites in 6 orbital planes at 20,000 km
systems altitude with 12-hour periods, used to provide highly precise position,
velocity and time information to users anywhere on Earth or in its
neighbourhood at any time.

90 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Green technology Technologies that help to reduce negative impacts on the natural
environment and abate climate change.
Green Growth A policy focus that emphasizes environmentally sustainable economic
progress to foster low-carbon, socially inclusive development.
Grid computing A variation on cloud computing where computers contribute processing
power to solve complex calculations and/or model complex phenomena
such as the weather or other environmental or ecosystemic phenomena,
events or processes, etc.
Life cycle A methodology that is used to determine the environmental impact of the
assessment conception, production, use and disposal of manufactured goods and
specifically ICTs.
Maladaptation Any changes in natural or human systems that inadvertently increase
vulnerability to climatic stimuli; an adaptation that does not succeed in
reducing vulnerability but increases it instead.
Miniaturization The process of making a technology smaller and require less energy to
operate.
Mitigation of climate A human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of
change greenhouse gas emissions.
RFID, Radio- Passive RFID technologies use ambient energy and react to external
frequency identifica- stimuli to communicate. Active RFID chips have their own energy source
tion technologies that they use to initiate communications with passive RFID chips from
which they may gather data.
Remote sensing The technology of acquiring data and information about an object or
phenomena by a device that is not in physical contact with it. In other
words, remote sensing refers to gathering information about the earth
and its environment from a distance.
Renewable energy Alternate energy sources that take advantage of widely available energy
sources such as the wind, sun, tides and waves to create power.
Sensor technology Device that produces an output (usually electrical) in response to stimulus
such as incident radiation. Analysing the transmitted data provides
valuable scientific information about the earth.
Smart technology Using ICT-based technologies to enhance energy efficiency and the
operation of an energy system.
Social networking Internet-based services that provide content and services and allow
users to publish their own content and share this with other users of their
designation. Social networking is the use of these applications.
Telepresence A form of high definition videoconferencing using dedicated Internet
connections.
Virtualization The consolidation of use of client devices and services, such as those
provided by the desktop computing environment, in order to increase
access, reduce costs and GHG emissions, and save energy.

Sources:
D. Brabham, “Crowdsourcing as a Model for Problem Solving”, International Journal into New Media Technologies, 14(1), 2008.
Carbon Footprint, “What is a Carbon Footprint?” Available from http://www.carbonfootprint.com/carbonfootprint.html.
EPA, “Glossary of Climate Change Terms”. Available from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/glossary.html#G.
EPA, “Geothermal Energy”. Available from http://www.epa.gov/ne/eco/energy/re_geothermal.html.
IEA, “Combustible Renewables and Waste”. Available from http://www.iea.org/stats/defs/sources/renew.asp.
IPCC, “Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability – Annex B: Glossary of Terms”. Available from http://www.ipcc.ch/
ipccreports/tar/wg2/index.php?idp=689.
ITU, “Next Generation Networks Global Standards Initiative”. Available from http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/gsi/ngn/Pages/default.aspx.
NASA, “Glossary”. Available from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Glossary/index.php?mode=alpha&seg=f&segend=h.
UNEP, “List of Acronyms and Glossary Terms”. Available from http://www.unep.org/dec/onlinemanual/Resources/Glossary/tabid/69/
Default.aspx?letter=C.
UNESCAP, “About Green Growth”. Available from http://www.greengrowth.org/?q=static-page/sat-10012011-1104/about-green-
growth.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 91

 Further Reading

General: Climate change

• Global Carbon Project. Available from http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/.

• IPCC (2007). Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups
I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. Geneva. Available from http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_
ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_synthesis_report.htm.
• __________ (2007). IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007. Annex
1: Glossary. Available from http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/
annex1sglossary-a-d.html.
• __________ (2012). Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance
climate change adaptation. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Available from http://ipcc-wg2.gov/SREX/
report/.
• ITU (2008). ICTs for e-Environment: Guidelines for developing countries with a focus on
climate change. Geneva. Available from
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/app/docs/itu-icts-for-e-environment.pdf.
• Stern, Nicholas (2010). Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. London:
HM Treasury. Available from http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sternreview_index.htm.
• UNFCCC (2010). Climate Change. Available from http://unfccc.int/files/documentation/
text/html/list_search.php?what=keywords&val=&valan=a&anf=0&id=10.
• __________. Issues in the negotiating process: A brief history of the climate change
process. Available from http://unfccc.int/cop7/issues/briefhistory.html.
• WCED (1987). Our Common Future. Report of the World Commission on Environment
and Development. Available from http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm.

Climate change adaptation and ICT applications

• Adaptation Atlas. Available from http://www.adaptationatlas.org.

• ADB (2009). Building Climate Resilience in the Agriculture Sector in Asia and the Pacific.
Manila. Available from http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2009/Building-Climate-
Resilience-Agriculture-Sector.pdf.
• __________ (2011). Food Security and Climate Change in the Pacific: Rethinking the
options. Manila.
• Climate Change Adaptation in Asia and the Pacific Knowledge Portal. Available from
http://www.asiapacificadapt.net.
• Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
(2005). National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA). Dhaka. Available from
http://www.moef.gov.bd/bangladesh%20napa%20unfccc%20version.pdf.
• NatureServe – A network connecting science with conservation. Available from
http://www.natureserve.org.
• Nepal Climate Portal. Available from http://www.dhm.np/dpc.
• Ospina, Angelica Valeria and Richard Heeks (2011). ICTs and Climate Change
Adaptation: Enabling Innovative Strategies. Strategy Brief 1. Climate Change, Innovation
and ICTs Project. Available from http://www.niccd.org/node/20.
• Pachube. Available from http://www.pachube.com.
• Pelling, Mark (2011). Adaptation to Climate Change: From resilience to transformation.
• UNCC:Learn – One UN Training Service Platform on Climate Change. Available from
http://www.uncclearn.org.

92 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

• UNFCCC. Essential Background. Available from http://unfccc.int/essential_background/
items/2877.php.
• weADAPT. Available from http://www.weadapt.org.
• WHO (2009). Protecting the health of vulnerable people from the humanitarian
consequences of climate change and climate related disasters. Paper presented at the
Sixth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action under
the Convention. Bonn, Germany, 1-12 June. Available from http://unfccc.int/resource/
docs/2009/smsn/igo/047.pdf.
• __________ (2010). Heat waves, floods and the health impacts of climate change:
A prototype training workshop for city officials. Available from http://www.who.int/kobe_
centre/publications/heatwaves_floods/en/index.html.
• WMO (2011). World Weather Watch Programme. Available from http://www.wmo.int/
pages/prog/www/index_en.html.

ICT for mitigating climate change

• Accenture (2005). Driving high performance in government: maximizing the value of

public-sector shared services. The Government Executive Series. Available from
http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/ca/locations/canada/insights/studies/driving.pdf.
• Bio Intelligence Service (2008). Final report: Impacts of information and communication
technologies on energy efficiency. European Commission DG INFSO. Available from
ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/ict/docs/sustainable-growth/ict4ee-final-report_en.pdf.
• Climate Risk Pty (2007). Towards a High-Bandwidth, Low-Carbon Future:
Telecommunications-based Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
Australia: Fairlight. Available from http://www.climaterisk.com.au/wpcontent/
uploads/2007/CR_Telstra_ClimateReport.pdf.
• Roeth, Helen, and others (2012). ICTs and Climate Change Mitigation in Developing
Countries. Strategy Brief 4. Climate Change Innovation and ICTs Project. Available from
http://www.niccd.org/sites/default/files/ICTs_and_Climate_Change_Mitigation_Strategy_
Brief.pdf.

ICT for understanding and monitoring the environment

• GEO (2011). What is GEOSS: The Global Earth Observation System of Systems,
25 April. Available from http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.shtml.
• ITU/WMO (2009). Use of Radio Spectrum for Meteorology: Weather, Water and Climate
Monitoring and Prediction. Geneva. Available from http://www.itu.int/publ/R-HDB-45/en.
• Pellerin, Cheryl (2009). “Planetary Skin” Tool Aims to Improve Response to Climate
Change: NASA, Cisco collaborate to integrate climate data, Web technology, 19 March.
Available from http://www.america.gov/st/energy-english/2009/March/20090319153825lc
nirellep0.4414484.html.

Deforestation

• UN-REDD Programme (2009). About Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation. Available from http://www.un-redd.org/AboutREDD/tabid/582/Default.aspx.

Energy demand

• IEA (2010). World Energy Outlook 2010. Presentation made in Beijing, China,
17 November. Available from http://www.energy.eu/publications/weo_2010-China.pdf.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 93

 • Greenpeace and European Renewable Energy Council (2010). Energy [R]evolution: A
Sustainable World Energy Outlook. 3rd edition. Available from http://www.greenpeace.
org/international/en/publications/reports/Energy-Revolution-A-Sustainable-World-
Energy-Outlook/.
• WWF (2011). The energy report – 100% renewable energy by 2050. Gland. Available
from http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/climate_carbon_energy/energy_
solutions/renewable_energy/sustainable_energy_report/.

Clean energy

• Earley, Rich (2011). Making a dent in energy waste – the pursuit of efficiency.
EnergyBiz, vol. 8, no. 3. Available from http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/energycentral/
energybiz_20110506/#/0.
• IEA (2010). Energy technology perspectives 2010 – Scenarios & strategies to 2050.
Paris: OECD/IEA. Available from http://www.iea.org/publications/free_new_Desc.
asp?PUBS_ID=2100.
• __________ (2011). Clean energy progress report. IEA input to the Clean Energy
Ministerial (CEM). Paris: OECD/IEA. Available from http://www.iea.org/papers/2011/
CEM_Progress_Report.pdf.
• Pew Charitable Trusts (2010). Who’s winning the clean energy race. 2010 edition.
Philadelphia. Available from http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/other-resources/
investing-in-clean-power-329295.
• __________ (2011). Investing in Clean Power, 29 March. Available from http://www.
pewenvironment.org/news-room/other-resources/investing-in-clean-power-329295.

Smart grid

• Department of Energy (2010), Communications requirements of smart grid technologies.

Washington, D.C. Available from http://www.gc.energy.gov/documents/Smart_Grid_
Communications_Requirements_Report_10-05-2010.pdf.
• IEEE Smart Grid. Smart Grid Conferences, Standards & News. Available from
http://smartgrid.ieee.org.

ICT-enabled energy efficiencies in buildings

• European Commission (2011). The European strategic research roadmap to ICT

enabled energy-efficiency in buildings and construction (REEB), 17 January.
• IBM (2011). Smarter buildings, 2 May. Available from http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/
us/en/green_buildings/ideas/.
• Major Economies Forum (2009). Technology action plan – buildings sector energy
efficiency. Available from http://www.majoreconomiesforum.org/images/stories/
documents/MEF%20Buildings%20Sector%20EE%20TAP%2011Dec2009.pdf.
• TERI University (2010). Development of environmental building regulations and
guidelines to achieve energy efficiency in Bangalore City. Booklet on energy efficiency
guidelines for new and existing buildings. Bangalore: TERI Press. Available from
http://toolkits.reeep.org/index.php?work=detail&asset=projectOutput&id=223.

Smart cities

• Accenture (2011). Building and Managing an Intelligent City. Available from

https://microsite.accenture.com/sustainability/research_and_insights/Pages/Building-
Managing-Intelligent-City.aspx.

94 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

• Bloomberg New Energy Finance (2011). Leadership Forum – Energy smart technologies
– Results book 2010, 14 January. Available from http://bnef.com/events-awards/
leadership-forums/est.
• UN-Habitat (2008). State of the world’s cities 2010/2011: Bridging the urban divide.
London: Earthscan. Available from http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=8051&catid
=7&typeid=46&subMenuId=0.
• UN-Habitat and Earthscan (2011). Cities and climate change: Policy directions – Global
report on human settlements 2011. Abridged edition. London: Earthscan. Available from
http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?typeid=19&catid=555&cid=9272.
• Urban and Regional Innovation Research Unit. Available from http://www.urenio.org.

Cloud computing

• Accenture and WSP Environment & Energy (2010). Cloud Computing and Sustainability:
The Environmental Benefits of Moving to the Cloud. Available from http://www.microsoft.
com/Presspass/press/2010/nov10/11-04CloudBenefitsPR.mspx.

e-Waste and e-recycling

• UNEP (2009). Recycling – From E-Waste to Resources. Available from

http://www.unep.org/pdf/pressreleases/E-waste_publication_screen_finalversion-sml.pdf.

Green computing

• Murugesan, San (2008). Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices. IEEE IT
Professional, January-February, pp. 25-26. Available from
http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~dtipper/2011/GreenPaper.pdf.

Sensor networks

• Akyildiz, Ian F., and Mehmet Can Vuran (2010). Wireless sensor networks. Ian F. Akyildiz
Series in Communications and Networking. United Kingdom: Wiley.
• ITU (2008). Ubiquitous sensor networks (USN). ITU-T Technology Watch Report #4.
Geneva. Available from http://www.itu.int/oth/T2301000004/en.

Internet trends

• Cisco (2010). Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2009-2014.
Available from http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/
ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-481360_ns827_Networking_Solutions_White_Paper.
html.
• __________ (2011). Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast
Update, 2010–2015. Available from http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/
ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html.
• ITU (2010). ICT facts and figures. The world in 2010. Geneva. Available from
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/material/FactsFigures2010.pdf.
• Meeker, Mary, Scott Devitt, and Liang Wu (2010). Internet trends. Morgan Stanley
presentation made at CM Summit, New York City, 7 June. Available from
http://www.slideshare.net/CMSummit/ms-internet-trends060710final.

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 95

 ICT, the environment, climate change and sustainable development

• Greenpeace (2011). New Greenpeace report digs up the dirt on Internet data centres,
21 April. Available from http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/New-
Greenpeace-report-digs-up-the-dirt-on-Internet-data-centres/.
• ISO (2006). ISO standards for life cycle assessment to promote sustainable
development, 7 July. Available from http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.
htm?refid=Ref1019.
• The Climate Group. SMART 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information
age. Available from http://www.smart2020.org/publications/.

Green Growth

• OECD (2010). Interim Report of the Green Growth Strategy: Implementing our
Commitment for a Sustainable Future. Paris. Available from http://www.oecd.org/
document/3/0, 3746,en_2649_201185_45196035_1_1_1_1,00.html.
• UN and ADB (2012). Green Growth, Resources and Resilience: Environmental
Sustainability in Asia and the Pacific. Available from http://www.unescap.org/esd/
environment/flagpubs/GGRAP.
• UNESCAP (2012). Low-Carbon Green Growth Roadmap for Asia and the Pacific.
http://www.unescap.org/esd/environment/lcgg/.

96 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

About the Author
The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) is a leading regional resource centre
working towards the realization of disaster reduction for safer communities and sustainable
development in Asia and the Pacific. Its mission is: “To reduce the impact of disasters on
communities and countries in Asia and the Pacific by raising awareness, helping to establish
and strengthen sustainable institutional mechanisms, enhancing knowledge and skills, and
facilitating the exchange of information, experience and expertise.”

ADPC’s roles in the Asia-Pacific region can be broadly categorized as the following:

• Development of capacities and • Preparations and follow up of global and

promotion of learning regional mechanisms
• Establishment of new regional • Dissemination of information and
mechanisms knowledge management
• Provision of technical and advisory • Support for inter-agency coherence and
services coordination
• Implementation of pioneering regional • Catalytic facilitator and partner of sub-
programmes regional mechanisms

ADPC was established in January 1986 after a feasibility study by the Office of the United Nations
Disaster Relief Coordinator (now the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs) and the WMO with funding from the UNDP. ADPC has in turn established new regional
mechanisms such as the Regional Consultative Committee on Disaster Management in 2000,
with the aim to identify the disaster-related needs and priorities of Asia-Pacific countries, develop
action strategies and promote cooperative programmes on a regional and sub-regional basis,
and provide strategic guidance to ADPC.

Providing intensive training on various aspects of DRM has been the foundation for ADPC’s
establishment and the primary focus of its activities during its first five years. The pioneering
training courses became ADPC’s flagship courses on Disaster Management and Community-
based DRR. Additional specialized training courses on various aspects of DRM with both single
and multiple hazard emphasis have remained part of our portfolio throughout the past 25 years,
with the following as the core training courses:

• Climate Risk Management- • End-to-End Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems

Science, Institutions and Society
• Community-based Disaster Risk • Flood Disaster Risk Management
Reduction
• Disaster Management Course • Hospital Emergency Preparedness and Response
• Disaster Risk Communication • Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction in Local
Governance
• Earthquake Vulnerability • Public Health and Emergency Management in
Reduction Course Asia and the Pacific
• Use of Geographical Information Systems and
Remote Sensing in Disaster Risk Management

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center

SM Tower 24th Floor, 979/69 Paholyothin Road, Samsen Nai, Phayathai,
Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Tel: 66 2 298 0681-92
Fax: 66 2 298 0012-13
E-mail: adpc@adpc.net
http://www.adpc.net

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 97

 UN-APCICT/ESCAP
The United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication
Technology for Development (UN-APCICT/ESCAP) is a regional institute of the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). UN-APCICT/ESCAP aims
to strengthen the efforts of the member countries of ESCAP to use ICT in their socio-economic
development through human and institutional capacity-building with the focus on the following
three pillars:

1. Training. To enhance the ICT knowledge and skills of policymakers and ICT professionals,
and strengthen the capacity of ICT trainers and ICT training institutions;
2. Research. To undertake analytical studies related to human resource development in ICT; and
3. Advisory. To provide advisory services on human resource development programmes to
ESCAP members and associate members.

UN-APCICT/ESCAP is located at Incheon, Republic of Korea.

http://www.unapcict.org

ESCAP

ESCAP is the regional development arm of the United Nations and serves as the main economic
and social development centre for the United Nations in Asia and the Pacific. Its mandate is to
foster cooperation between its 53 members and nine associate members. ESCAP provides the
strategic link between global and country-level programmes and issues. It supports governments
of countries in the region in consolidating regional positions and advocates regional approaches
to meeting the region’s unique socio-economic challenges in a globalizing world. The ESCAP
office is located at Bangkok, Thailand.

http://www.unescap.org

98 Primer Series on ICTD for Youth

Additional UN-APCICT/ESCAP Programmes and Resources
The Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders
http://www.unapcict.org/academy

The Academy is a comprehensive ICT for development training curriculum with currently
ten modules that aims to equip policymakers with the essential knowledge and skills to fully
leverage opportunities presented by ICTs to achieve national development goals and bridge
the digital divide.

These modules are being customized with local case studies by national Academy partners to
ensure that the modules are relevant and meet the needs of policymakers in different countries.
The modules are also been translated into different languages. To ensure that the programme
stays relevant and addresses emerging trends in the ICTD, APCICT regularly revises the
modules and develops new modules.

APCICT Virtual Academy (http://e-learning.unapcict.org)

The APCICT Virtual Academy is part of the multi-channel delivery mechanism that APCICT
employs in the implementation of its flagship ICTD capacity building programme, the Academy
of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders.

The Virtual Academy allows learners to access online courses designed to enhance their
knowledge in a number of key areas of ICTD including utilizing the potential of ICTs for reaching
out to remote communities, increasing access to information, improving delivery of services,
promoting lifelong learning, and ultimately, bridging the digital divide and achieving the MDGs.

All APCICT Virtual Academy courses are characterized by easy-to-follow virtual lectures and
quizzes, and users are rewarded with APCICT’s certificate of participation upon successful
completion of the courses. All Academy modules in English and localized versions in Bahasa
and Russian are available via the Internet. In addition, plans for more content development and
further localization are underway.

e-Collaborative Hub (http://www.unapcict.org/ecohub)

The e-Collaborative Hub (e-Co Hub) is APCICT’s dedicated online platform for knowledge
sharing on ICTD. It aims to enhance the learning and training experience by providing easy
access to relevant resources, and by making available an interactive space for sharing best
practices and lessons on ICTD. e-Co Hub provides:

• A resources portal and knowledge sharing network for ICTD

• Easy access to resources by module
• Opportunities to engage in online discussions and become part of the e-Co Hub’s online
community of practice that serves to share and expand the knowledge base of ICTD

Primer 4: ICT, Climate Change and Green Growth 99