The climate impact of ICT:A review of estimates, trends and regulations

In this report, we examine the available evidence regarding ICT's current and projected climate impacts. We examine peer-reviewed studies which estimate ICT's current share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be 1.8-2.8% of global GHG emissions. Our findings indicate that published estimates all underestimate the carbon footprint of ICT, possibly by as much as 25%, by failing to account for all of ICT's supply chains and full lifecycle (i.e. emissions scopes 1, 2 and fully inclusive 3). Adjusting for truncation of supply chain pathways, we estimate that ICT's share of emissions could actually be as high as 2.1-3.9%. There are pronounced differences between available projections of ICT's future emissions. These projections are dependent on underlying assumptions that are sometimes, but not always, made explicit - and we explore these in the report. Whatever assumptions analysts take, they agree that ICT will not reduce its emissions without a major concerted effort involving broad political and industrial action. We provide three reasons to believe ICT emissions are going to increase barring a targeted intervention, and we note that in light of these, it seems risky to assume that ICT will, by default, assist in the attainment of climate targets. Based on our analysis, we find that not all carbon pledges in the ICT sector are ambitious enough to meet climate targets. We explore the underdevelopment of mechanisms for enforcing sector-wide compliance, and contend that without a global carbon constraint, a new regulatory framework is required to keep the ICT sector's carbon footprint in alignment with the Paris Agreement. We further contend that a global carbon constraint should be viewed as a significant opportunity for the ICT sector, as efficiencies within and enabled by ICT would be even greater enablers of productivity and utility than they are today

The real climate and transformative impact of ICT:A critique of estimates, trends and regulations

In this paper, we critique ICT's current and projected climate impacts. Peer-reviewed studies estimate ICT's current share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at 1.8-2.8% of global GHG emissions; adjusting for truncation of supply chain pathways, we find this share could actually be between 2.1-3.9%. For ICT's future emissions, we explore assumptions underlying analysts' projections to understand the reasons for their variability. All analysts agree that ICT emissions will not reduce without major concerted efforts involving broad political and industrial action. We provide three reasons to believe ICT emissions are going to increase barring intervention and find not all carbon pledges in the ICT sector are ambitious enough to meet climate targets. We explore the underdevelopment of policy mechanisms for enforcing sector-wide compliance, and contend that without a global carbon constraint, a new regulatory framework is required to keep the ICT sector's footprint aligned with the Paris Agreement

Combining Cloud and sensors in a smart city environment

International audienceIn the current worldwide ICT scenario, a constantly growing number of ever more powerful devices (smartphones, sensors, household appliances, RFID devices, etc.) join the Internet, significantly impacting the global traffic volume (data sharing, voice, multimedia, etc.) and foreshadowing a world of (more or less) smart devices, or "things" in the Internet of Things (IoT) perspective. Heterogeneous resources can be aggregated and abstracted according to tailored thing-like semantics, thus enabling Things as a Service paradigm, or better a "Cloud of Things". In the Future Internet initiatives, sensor networks will assume even more of a crucial role, especially for making smarter cities. Smarter sensors will be the peripheral elements of a complex future ICT world. However, due to differences in the "appliances" being sensed, smart sensors are very heterogeneous in terms of communication technologies, sensing features and elaboration capabilities. This article intends to contribute to the design of a pervasive infrastructure where new generation services interact with the surrounding environment, thus creating new opportunities for contextualization and geo-awareness. The architecture proposal is based on Sensor Web Enablement standard specifications and makes use of the Contiki Operating System for accomplishing the IoT. Smart cities are assumed as the reference scenario

Cities on the path to 'smart': information technology provider interactions with urban governance through smart city projects in Dubuque, Iowa and Portland, Oregon

Information and communication technologies are increasingly being infused into city systems and services as part of a growing trend to make cities ‘smart’. Through the design and implementation of these efforts, large information technology (IT) providers are interacting with local government policy and planning processes via: (a) strategy—project objectives, priorities and approaches; (b) engagement—which actors are involved, the roles they play and the interactions between and among them; and (c) representation—how the local government portrays the project through narrative and brand. In the discussion below, I argue that as smart projects multiply, interactions around this proliferation will pave the way for IT providers to more broadly inform urban governance processes. For in effect, IT providers are not just selling smart technologies. Rather, they are propagating a set of assertions about the role, structure, function and relationships of local government. These assertions are informed by neoliberal and entrepreneurial principles, bound up with the concept of smart, and attractively wrapped within the smart city imaginary. This imaginary is largely created by IT providers, and cannot be pursued without them. Within my approach, I view smart initiatives not simply as technical but social and political strategies, for while these projects are about technological innovation, they are also about ‘innovations’ in the relationships, interactions and discourse that surround them. To capture both the discursive and material realities of these projects, my methods of examination included key informant interviews and case study analysis of two cities in the United States, Dubuque, Iowa and Portland, Oregon. I focus specifically on smart projects led by IBM, an influential actor in the smart city market, and use Dubuque as a primary case study with Portland for comparison. My work provides an in-depth view of the IT provider IBM alongside the rise of the corporate entrepreneurial smart city, and sheds light on what these initiatives might mean for municipal administrations and city residents in similar urban environments

An Innovative, Open, Interoperable Citizen Engagement Cloud Platform for Smart Government and Users' Interaction

This paper introduces an open, interoperable, and cloud-computing-based citizen engagement platform for the management of administrative processes of public administrations, which also increases the engagement of citizens. The citizen engagement platform is the outcome of a 3-year Italian national project called PRISMA (Interoperable cloud platforms for smart government). The aim of the project is to constitute a new model of digital ecosystem that can support and enable new methods of interaction among public administrations, citizens, companies, and other stakeholders surrounding cities. The platform has been defined by the media as a flexible (enable the addition of any kind of application or service) and open (enable access to open services) Italian "cloud" that allows public administrations to access to a vast knowledge base represented as linked open data to be reused by a stakeholder community with the aim of developing new applications ("Cloud Apps") tailored to the specific needs of citizens. The platform has been used by Catania and Syracuse municipalities, two of the main cities of southern Italy, located in the Sicilian region. The fully adoption of the platform is rapidly spreading around the whole region (local developers have already used available application programming interfaces (APIs) to create additional services for citizens and administrations) to such an extent that other provinces of Sicily and Italy in general expressed their interest for its usage. The platform is available online and, as mentioned above, is open source and provides APIs for full exploitation.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, journal pape

Facing urban challenges : Tungsram smart city action plan

Closed to three-quarters of Europeans live in cities today, and by the growth of the population worldwide, this ratio is ever increasing. The accelerated speed of urbanization poses unprecedented challenges on people, cities, and the environment. Sustainability became a key global objective since Rio via Tokyo until Paris Agreement. The United Nations prepared an agenda for a better and more sustainable future for all. The 17 Goals are related to global challenges such as climate change, poverty, and the effects of urbanization. Over the last decade, various Smart City approaches have emerged among the government, non-profit sectors, and industries to use Information and Communication Technology as a tool to manage these challenges and to improve the quality of life for their citizens. At the same time, Industry 4.0, the digitalization of industries, has diffused across the world, setting the scene for a new stage of innovation yet keeping the competitiveness of business players. Tungsram, a multinational corporation headquartered in Hungary, has refocused its mission and stood up to expand its product portfolio by including Smart City solutions. Tungsram Edge focuses on three major Smart City offerings: indoor farming, efficient buildings, and Smart Solutions. Indoor farming (AgriTech), a science-based approach to agriculture, uses the latest research to establish precision indoor farming facilities. Efficient buildings (PropTech) has come to life to support the universal goal of reducing cities’ ecological footprint. Each smart solution has a direct or indirect effect on several objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The first part of the paper identifies the key contemporary challenges of cities and industries and the evolution and links of Smart City and Industry 4.0 approaches. The second part of the paper is a case study of a multinational company headquartered in Hungary entering into these processes by building a Smart City Action Plan and by developing key smart products (Smart City portfolio) to react to and to provide solutions for urban challenges

Systems thinking and efficiency under emissions constraints: Addressing rebound effects in digital innovation and policy

Innovations and efficiencies in digital technology have lately been depicted as paramount in the green transition to enable the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, both in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector and the wider economy. This, however, fails to adequately account for rebound effects that can offset emission savings and, in the worst case, increase emissions. In this perspective, we draw on a transdisciplinary workshop with 19 experts from carbon accounting, digital sustainability research, ethics, sociology, public policy, and sustainable business to expose the challenges of addressing rebound effects in digital innovation processes and associated policy. We utilize a responsible innovation approach to uncover potential ways forward for incorporating rebound effects in these domains, concluding that addressing ICT-related rebound effects ultimately requires a shift from an ICT efficiency-centered perspective to a “systems thinking” model, which aims to understand efficiency as one solution among others that requires constraints on emissions for ICT environmental savings to be realized

New Songdo City: A Case Study in Complexity Thinking and Ubiquitous Urban Design

A new urban form has emerged amid the perfect storm of global crises: climate change, energy transition, demographic shifts (growth, aging, and urbanization), food and water insecurity, pandemics, economic stress, and ecological degradation. Known as “smart cities” or “ubiquitous cities,” this urban form is characterized by deployments of computer technologies and analytics that promise enhanced efficiencies within the urban metabolism. This paper presents South Korea’s New Songdo City as a case study in ubiquitous urban design by asking if it constitutes an opportunity within the perfect storm for an emergent, resilient urbanism. A key player in building New Songdo City is Cisco Systems. The project is an important strategic transition for Cisco Systems as its move from internet “plumbing” (routers) to whole systems design. An emergent property within global capitalism, ubiquitous urban design is a driving force in reproducing markets, technology, and investment. The emergent property, however, is nested within Gale International’s (the developer) top-down, Haussmann-like approach to urban planning. It has a high modernist, linear approach to urban design that attempts to impose order on the oscillating environment of global crises. Core to the resulting tension between bottom-up and top-down approaches, is how ubiquitous design increases efficiency within modernity’s late conservation phase, and how it drives the system into a deeper state of overshoot that threatens to tip into a hard collapse. As we build more of these cities, we need to question if they are the proper strategy for weathering the perfect storm

From Sensor to Observation Web with Environmental Enablers in the Future Internet

This paper outlines the grand challenges in global sustainability research and the objectives of the FP7 Future Internet PPP program within the Digital Agenda for Europe. Large user communities are generating significant amounts of valuable environmental observations at local and regional scales using the devices and services of the Future Internet. These communities’ environmental observations represent a wealth of information which is currently hardly used or used only in isolation and therefore in need of integration with other information sources. Indeed, this very integration will lead to a paradigm shift from a mere Sensor Web to an Observation Web with semantically enriched content emanating from sensors, environmental simulations and citizens. The paper also describes the research challenges to realize the Observation Web and the associated environmental enablers for the Future Internet. Such an environmental enabler could for instance be an electronic sensing device, a web-service application, or even a social networking group affording or facilitating the capability of the Future Internet applications to consume, produce, and use environmental observations in cross-domain applications. The term ?envirofied? Future Internet is coined to describe this overall target that forms a cornerstone of work in the Environmental Usage Area within the Future Internet PPP program. Relevant trends described in the paper are the usage of ubiquitous sensors (anywhere), the provision and generation of information by citizens, and the convergence of real and virtual realities to convey understanding of environmental observations. The paper addresses the technical challenges in the Environmental Usage Area and the need for designing multi-style service oriented architecture. Key topics are the mapping of requirements to capabilities, providing scalability and robustness with implementing context aware information retrieval. Another essential research topic is handling data fusion and model based computation, and the related propagation of information uncertainty. Approaches to security, standardization and harmonization, all essential for sustainable solutions, are summarized from the perspective of the Environmental Usage Area. The paper concludes with an overview of emerging, high impact applications in the environmental areas concerning land ecosystems (biodiversity), air quality (atmospheric conditions) and water ecosystems (marine asset management)