ICT and the Environment in Developing Countries: an Overview of Opportunities and Developments

Both developed and developing countries face many environmental challenges, including climate change, improving energy efficiency and waste management, addressing air pollution, water quality and scarcity, and loss of natural habitats and biodiversity. Drawing on the existing literature, this paper presents an overview of how the Internet and the ICT and related research communities can help tackle environmental challenges in developing countries. The review focuses on the role of ICTs in climate change mitigation, mitigating other environmental pressures, and climate change adaptation.information and communication technology (ICT), environment, climate change, mitigation, adaptation.

Rebound Effects in Cloud Computing: Towards a Conceptual Framework

Rebound effects have been discussed in various disciplines. In the information and communication technology sector, this topic is still insufficiently studied. Basically, a rebound effect is a feedback mechanism, as a result of which savings from efficiency improvements are not or only partially realized. Due to the potential of cloud computing for efficiency improvements, not only in terms of energy efficiency, but also in terms of organizational resources in general, we describe rebound effects in this context by means of a systematic literature review and a case study. Our results provide a framework to categorize and identify potential rebound effects in cloud computing. The understanding of rebound effects and their influence on the various organizational resources (e.g., server hardware, human resources or IT know-how), is important for managers to sustainably decide for or against the adoption, integration and roll out of cloud computing services

The need for interdisciplinary research on exponential technologies and sustainability

Technology has a clear influence on the way we live, our culture and how society functions, and last but not least our environment. At a moment when the transformational factor of technology is accelerating at an exponential pace, it is really important to reflect the direction that we want this acceleration to go. In this paper we present some of the factors relevant to this mater: 1) the influence of technology in the society and the environment. 2) The acceleration of some technologies that have tipped and are tipping in the 20th and 21th century. 3) The problem of sustainability when exponential growth is applied to a scenario with lineal growth of resources. 4) The opportunity that represent exponential technologies to fix current humanities difficulties. And 5) technology, exponential or not, is not enough to fix the problems humanity is facing since the problems are embedded in the culture that is fueling the development of the technology. Finally we conclude that the direction that technology will take will be determined ultimately by the society's prevalent culture, and to make an influence in the culture we need not only technologists but also humanists to enter in this kind of discussions and research.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The Treadmill of Information: Development of the Information Society and Carbon Dioxide Emissions

The world is facing a crisis of global warming due to the release of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses by human activities. Many scholars and stakeholders argue that information and communication technology (ICT) development will mitigate CO2 emissions. Advocacy of technological solutions to CO2 mitigation is consistent with ecological modernization theory\u27s assertion that reflexive societies will modernize sustainably. In contrast, we define the “treadmill of information” as the unique contribution of ICT development to environmental degradation. We examine the impact of ICT development on total CO2 emissions and source-sector emissions from electricity, buildings, manufacturing, and transportation using a multilevel growth model for panel data from 113 countries split into the world, developed country, and less-developed-country samples. We find that the level of fixed telephone development is a strong predictor of higher CO2 emissions in less-developed countries, while internet use predicts higher CO2 emissions in developed countries. The effect of mobile telephone development is not significant. Thus, it appears that ICTs are not having an ameliorative effect on global warming as expected by ecological modernization theorists, and instead reinforce the treadmill of production\u27s negative effect

Opportunities and Risks of Digitalization for Climate Protection in Switzerland

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an important enabler for a low-carbon economy in Switzerland. ICT has the potential to avoid up to 3.37 times more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the amount of emissions caused by the production, operation and disposal of ICT devices and infrastructures used in Switzerland in 2025. In absolute terms, ICT will enable the Swiss economy to save up to 6.99 Mt CO2-equivalents (CO2e) per year, with an own carbon footprint of 2.08 Mt CO2e per year. This opportunity for the ICT sector to contribute to climate protection, however, can only be realized under optimistic assumptions. In particular, it is necessary that the existing technological and economic potentials are systematically exploited by taking ambitious and targeted actions. Such actions can be especially effective in the transportation, building and energy sectors, which have the highest potential for ICT-enabled (“smart”) solutions to reduce GHG emissions. At the same time, the carbon footprint of the ICT sector itself must be reduced by 17%, which is technologically and economically feasible due to efficiency gains

Unveiling the links between ICTs and climate change in developing countries : a scoping study

Also published as University of Manchester, Climate change, innovation and ICTs paper no. 1This paper presents some emerging examples of ICT use in climate change mitigation, monitoring, and adaptation strategies in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The document aims to strengthen knowledge exchange on this topic. It analyzes key gaps and issues that need to be considered, as research on information and communication technologies (ICTs), climate change and development continues to evolve. The emerging role of ICTs can shed light on innovative approaches and possibilities to respond, prepare for, and adapt to climate change impacts

Références bibliographiques

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Information and communication technology development and anthropogenic global warming: A cross-national panel study of ICT development on carbon dioxide emissions 1990-2009

Policy makers and ecological modernization scholars have begun to focus attention on the application of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to the mitigation of CO2 emissions, the primary cause of anthropogenic global warming. This begs the question. Does ICT development increase or decrease CO2 emissions? Two schools of thought provide competing hypotheses on this question. On one hand, Ecological Modernization Theory and its associated perspectives offer an optimistic appraisal of the impact of ICT development on CO2 emissions. On the other hand, World Systems Theory, Treadmill of Production Theory and Structural Human Ecology Theory offer a pessimistic view of the potential for ICT development to reduce CO2 emissions. This dissertation investigates the impact of ICT development on CO2 emissions and resolves which school of thought is most appropriate. The analyses of six dependent variables (total CO2 emissions, per capita CO2 emissions and CO2 emissions from electricity, buildings, manufacturing, and transportation) are conducted using a multilevel growth model that examines both changes over time (level-1) and differences between countries (level-2). The analyses cover the years 1990-2009 and uses three samples of nations: a global sample of all countries that data are available for (N=1926, n=121), a developed countries sample (N=461, n=26) and a less-developed countries sample (N=1465, n=95). Four key ICT development indicators are included as independent variables: fixed telephones per 100 people, mobile telephones per 100 people, the leapfrogging ratio of mobile telephones to fixed telephones and Internet users per 100 people. Population size, GDP per capita, urbanization, trade, and service economy are included as controls. The results of the analyses support the pessimistic view of ICT development. Fixed telephones per 100 people is the most consistent driver of increased CO2 emissions globally. Mobile telephones do not have a significant impact on CO2 emissions. Globally, the Internet does not have a significant effect on CO2 emissions; however, in developed countries the Internet does increase CO2 emissions

Transformations agricoles et agroalimentaires

À l’heure des robots et du numérique, la terre (habitat, agriculture, paysage, planète) et la nourriture (du corps et de l’âme) sont parmi les préoccupations majeures dans les espaces médiatiques et politiques. Le pétrole et l’abondance qui l’a accompagné nous avaient fait oublier qu’elles sont au fondement des sociétés humaines. La « crise alimentaire » de 2008, qui a secoué plusieurs continents, a rappelé aux gouvernements l’enjeu de la sécurité alimentaire. Après des décennies d’excédents, de baisse du prix des produits agricoles de base, la question de la valeur de la terre et de l’agriculture est de retour. La question de la santé et celle des droits humains prennent une place élargie tant dans les politiques publiques et dans la production de normes alimentaires. Des mouvements sociaux transnationaux s’emparent de la question de l’avenir de l’agriculture et de l’alimentation, et de celle de la « bonne vie ». Pour contribuer à cette réflexion sur l’avenir de la terre et de la nourriture, cet ouvrage étudie la socialisation de l’agriculture, c’est-à-dire sa prise en charge tant par les politiques agricoles (essentiellement nationales) que par l’organisation des marchés dans un cadre national et international. Il le fait en prenant un large recul et mobilise trois temporalités. La première est celle de la planète. La seconde, celle des régimes métaboliques, façons dont l’humanité à différents stades de développement, mobilise matériaux et énergie. La troisième est celle du capitalisme, avec la succession de systèmes hégémoniques (ce qui n’exclue pas de multiples polarités). Cet ouvrage réunit des recherches récentes d’économistes, de sociologues, d’historiens et d’agronomes, de différents pays, recherches qui ont en commun de concerner la place de l’agriculture dans l’évolution des capitalismes