Isramart : ICT key to cut carbon emissions, says IDC

Isramart news:
ICT-based offerings can cut 5.8 billion tons of CO2 emissions by 2020, according to IDC's G20 ICT Sustainability Index.

Six countries from the Asia/Pacific region were included in the study, Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Korea, which are estimated to contribute in the reduction of 2.4 billion tons (or 41.4%) within this target.

Japan was ranked as the top-tier country of the G20 nations, with most potential of reducing greenhouse gases. Australia, China and Korea were ranked in the fourth-tier of the Index, while India and Indonesia were ranked in the fifth-tier.

Philip Carter, associate research director for Asia/Pacific practice and green IT and sustainability research at IDC, said: "It is clear that Asia/Pacific as a region has a prominent role to play in dealing with climate change as a global issue.

“We are hopeful that governments in the region start to identify technology areas highlighted in the study and provide incentives for companies and consumers to start using them more specifically with this objective in mind. We also anticipate that more progressive policy makers will go a step further and begin to mandate the usage of some of these technologies and associated solutions in certain industries."

In developing the research, the firm identified seventeen core technologies in four major economic sectors, energy generation and distribution, transport, buildings and industry.

In the Asia/Pacific region, the priority of specific sectors and technologies varies by country. Transport-related sources constitute the largest share of CO2e reduction potential in Japan (30%) and supply chain and logistics optimisation is the specific technology area expected to have the greatest impact in meeting the target for this sector.

In China, most opportunity to reduce CO2 emissions lies in the energy generation and distribution sector and renewable energy management systems utilising the smart grid is expected to drive most of the savings within the sector.

In a separate study conducted by IDC, which included 450 organisations in Asia/Pacific, showed that the cost of energy is still the key driver for organisations, with over 60% in the region indicated this to be the case. Growth in IT Infrastructure was also indicated as a factor that is rising fast on the agenda, particularly in China.

According to the study, further local differences become clearer between countries within the Asia/Pacific, particularly when comparing emerging countries such as China against the more developed ones like Australia and Japan. In Australia and Japan, senior executives are taking the leading role in these initiatives. By comparison in the China, this responsibility is being pushed to IT Management.

In addition, the survey also identified three green IT and sustainability areas that respondents hope to initiate within the next 12 months, namely 63% of Australian, 62% of Chinese and 45% of Japanese respondents intend to change customer behaviour from print to online. 47% of Japanese respondents plan to initiate techniques for better managing systems or data such as server management duplication while 45% of Chinese respondents aim to implement a thin client or client device strategy.