Navigating the Double-Edged Sword: ICT’s and AI’s Impact on Energy Consumption, GHG Emissions, and Environmental Sustainability

Expert panel examines ICT’s role in environmental sustainability amid climate challenges

An expert panel convened to examine the complex relationship between Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and environmental sustainability, particularly in light of climate change challenges. The session was a component of the Green Digital Action initiative, which originated at COP28, aiming to mobilize a diverse coalition of stakeholders to enhance climate action within the ICT sector. The panel included Oscar Mauricio Lizcano Arango, Colombia’s Minister of Information Technologies and Communications; Antonia Gawel from Google; Sally Radwan of the UN Environment Programme; and Jean-Manuel Canet of ITU Study Group 5.

The dialogue commenced with an acknowledgment of ICTs’ dual nature, which can significantly benefit sustainability but also pose challenges due to their environmental footprint. The panelists explored how ICTs and AI could contribute to global sustainability goals through environmental monitoring, data analysis to understand ecological cause and effect, and improving prediction and planning for policymaking.

The discussion highlighted the ICT sector’s increasing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, emphasizing the need to align with the Paris Agreement’s targets. The Green Digital Action initiative was spotlighted as a catalyst for awareness and partnerships for concrete action, including commitments by ICT sector partners to set science-based emission reduction targets.

From a governmental stance, His Excellency Oscar Mauricio Lizcano Arango outlined Colombia’s strategies for sustainable ICT sector growth. He highlighted Colombia’s clean energy transition, with a substantial portion of its energy matrix coming from hydropower and growing investments in solar and wind power. Colombia is also utilizing AI to protect the Amazon rainforest and has initiated community-driven projects that combine connectivity with sustainable energy solutions.

Antonia Gawel from Google provided insights into Google’s efforts to integrate sustainability into ICTs and AI development and deployment. Google focuses on using AI to combat climate change, with initiatives aimed at improving information access, resource optimization, and prediction capabilities. Gawel also discussed managing the environmental footprint of AI, highlighting Google’s advancements in model optimization, efficient infrastructure, decarbonization of power supply, and water conservation.

Jean-Manuel Canet discussed the importance of international standards in addressing the sustainability and environmental impact of ICTs and AI. He emphasized transparency in assessing these impacts and the need for inclusive standards development processes. Canet invited participation in developing new standards, particularly regarding the environmental impact of software.

The panel also addressed the circular economy within the ICT sector, discussing cradle-to-cradle design and sustainable procurement practices. Audience questions led to further discussion on the need for universal consensus in the research and development of energy-efficient ICT tools and the importance of international collaboration in these efforts.

In conclusion, the panelists concurred that a collaborative effort from all stakeholders is necessary to manage the ICT sector’s negative environmental impacts. Key steps include rigorous environmental impact studies, decarbonization of the power sector, scaling efficient practices, and integrating circular economy principles into ICT products and infrastructure. The discussion underscored the need for collaboration, standardization, and research to ensure the ICT sector’s positive contribution to environmental sustainability while mitigating its ecological footprint.

Robin Zuercher:
any minute but we’ll just go ahead. So excellencies, dear participants, thanks a lot for joining us this morning in person or remotely online for the session on navigating the double-edged sword to reflect on the ICTs and the impact on climate change and environmental sustainability. I would like to also thank the speakers for joining me here today in the room. The panel is comprised of His Excellency Mr Oscar Mauricio Lizcano Arango, the Minister of Information Technologies and Communications of Colombia, Ms Antonia Gawel, the Global Director of Sustainability and Partnerships of Google, Ms Sally Radwan, Chief Digital Officer at the UN Environment Programme and Jean-Manuel Canet, who is the Senior Manager Climate and Biodiversity but he’s actually more here in his role as Vice Chair of ITU Study Group 5 on Environment Circular Economy. So thanks a lot for joining us today. So for those that are not familiar, this session is held in the context of Green Digital Action which is a multi-stakeholder initiative that was launched at COP28 last year in UAE and the intention behind Green Digital Action is to bring together a group of multi-stakeholders for increased climate action. We have focused on six thematic pillars, focusing on the positive and negative aspects of digital technologies and this session today is closely aligned with the greenhouse gas emissions pillar which really reflects on okay how can the ICT sector keep its growing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions under control. So Green Digital Action is not just aiming to raise ambition, is not just planning, aiming to raise awareness about the issue and showcase the issues but is also really bringing together partners for concrete action. So at COP28 we had a fantastic set of group from the ICT sector that has agreed to set one and a half degree aligned science-based target to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement and to publish and create transition plans and then also regularly measure the progress and publicly report the data. So this session is really taking place in this context and with the AI for Good Summit taking place at the same time next door, we wanted to put a specific focus within this landscape on AIs and how the growing computational demands and the growing energy consumption through AI models puts this goal of one and a half degree aligned science-based targets and reductions in line with the Paris Agreement at peril. So thanks a lot for joining. I think I’ve said enough from my side for now. So I’d like to give the floor to Sally first to set the scene. So Sally, could you just start the conversation and let us know in what ways ICTs in general or AI specifically contribute to achieving global sustainability goals, but also at the same time, what are the limitation and challenges? Thank you.

Sally Radwan:
Thank you very much, Robin. Good morning, everyone. And thank you for being here and thank you for inviting me. It’s a topic that has become quite popular lately, right, with the opportunities and the challenges and the risks. And since we’re also at the AI for Good Summit this week, we can talk specifically a little bit about AI. So there’s no denying that the opportunities are huge for using AI to serve sustainability goals. And I’ll maybe try to classify them into three categories. Certainly from our perspective at UNEP and the environmental challenges that the planet faces, we see the potential for ICT and AI to help first of all with monitoring the state of the environment, monitoring slash reporting. So basically giving a near real-time view of the state of the environment across different variables, whether it’s climate change, biodiversity, deforestation, pollution and chemicals or the rest of it. The second category is analysis. So once we have all these data sets, what insights can we glean out of them? What can be the causes and effects, for example, that we can understand not just from one environmental data set, but how can we, for example, infer the causes of, let’s say, a certain forest fire? How can we trace back the diminishing biodiversity to the effect of climate change? So it’s all these linkages that we can create by properly analyzing multiple data sets and also using AI to achieve that. And then the third category is really forward-looking. So it’s the prediction and the planning and the policymaking and decision support aspect of it, which I have to say is probably the least developed out of the AI applications so far. And this is what we need to focus on because this is where the real value is of machine learning models and now of generative AI. So this is, if I’m planning to build a new power plant in a certain country, what is the location that will minimize emissions across different types of pollutants? for example, what is the best cost-benefit going to be realized by which location, which combination of building materials, and so on and so forth. So it’s these real-world decisions that we can take based on that deeper analysis and also on the calculation of the implications. Like if I change 500 buses from diesel to hydrogen fuel, for example, what impact does that have, and then what happens if I change it from 500 to 1,000? What’s the marginal improvement, and is it really worth it, and so on? So the opportunities are huge. I’m sure we’ll talk about the downsides for the rest of the session, so let me just give a quick teaser by saying everyone talks about emissions and energy use, but that’s only part of the story. We’re talking about an entire life cycle here. So if we take AI data centers, for example, the story begins with raw materials. It starts with the extractive practices of rare earth minerals and metals, which can be very damaging to the environment, all the way to the manufacturing, the transportation, the building of those data centers, the operation, which consumes huge amounts of water specifically, in addition to energy, of course, and then the waste and e-waste generation. So we need to look at that entire story, and that’s only the direct impact. We then have the indirect impact of those data centers on different sectors. So what does a new AI data center, how does it impact the rest of the healthcare sector, for example, or the e-commerce supply chain, and all the rest of the sectors? And then there’s what we call the higher order impact, which are the behavioral changes that happen due to AI, due to increased online shopping practices and recommendation entrants trying to push products in certain ways and not necessarily all of them being sustainable, misinformation and disinformation, of course, that are caused by the proliferation of AI systems. So there is a much, much bigger picture that we need to look at in terms of the downsides instead of just focusing on emissions and energy use.

Robin Zuercher:
Excellent, Sally. And it’s fantastic, yes, that you already opened the conversation a bit to include this whole conversation about water consumption, critical or raw materials, which is coming up more and more, which is very important as well for the green transition. So thanks a lot for that. Your Excellency, thank you very much for being here. Now that we’ve heard about the bigger picture, the positive and negative aspects, could you just give us a first insight into, from a policy perspective, what are the key strategies your government in Colombia is employing? to regulate and encourage the sustainable growth of the ICT sector and AI.

Oscar Mauricio Lizcano Arango:
First of all, thank you for the invitation. Good morning to everyone, to the panelists. In Colombia, Colombia has a strong public policy in terms of energetic transition. We, for example, have our president Petro has taken a very, very, I think, very strong decisions. For example, in terms of exploring more oil, Colombia stopped the exploring of oil. We are still exploiting oil, but we stopped the exploring of oil as a public policy decision of to move forward the energetic transition in Colombia. 69% of our energetic matrix in Colombia is hydropower. And now we are increasing a lot of solar power and wind power to become more or less clean energies, more than 85% of our energetic matrix in Colombia. We have in Colombia, working very hard with AI to protect the Amazonas jungle. We just created an international fund. Brazil has one, but Colombia also created one, investing $500,000 million in the fund to protect the Amazonas jungle as one of the public policies. So energetic transition is one of the main pillars of the Petro government. I think this is the most important one in the Colombian public policy nowadays. And of course, ICT has a part on it. What we’re doing is we are mostly of our transportation, last mile, antennas, and all this stuff. We are trying to do it with solar power. We, for example, in Colombia has, we had a policy of last mile to connect the unserved population called community connections, in which the communities are the ones who connect the last mile by themself, giving a support from the government. And we have this interlinking with a program called Energetic Communities, in which communities have solar powers on the on the rooftop of the houses, or they have a small farms of, of solar powers, and then both energetic communities and connectivity communities work together in terms of create a sustainability in the communities. Also, we as the lady who spoke before me, sorry, Sally said, we are we are trying to, to, to put our data centers in a high levels, where it’s more cool, so they spend more energy. So we are trying to put in the in the mountains or in the cities that are more higher than the cities that are less, so they consume less energy. So we are using this strategy, for example, our data center. So our we are creating now in Colombia, two big producer of AI, two labs, we are putting in Bogota, where it’s high, it’s up top of the mountain, so they consume less energy. And also we have an strategy, we create a fund just with the prescient also, to develop new I&D strategies, in terms of create new technologies to consume less energy in the ICT sector. We did this partnership with the science minister of Colombia. And we put some fund, we create a fund in which entrepreneurs and all the ecosystem of Colombia, academy, entrepreneurs, capital risk, and the government and the companies, we work together. in how to create new technologies in which Colombia could spend less energy in terms of ICT sector. Also, we are using the power grids. The power grids, we are putting new technologies so the consumption of energy is more smart, like a smart counter of power grids. I don’t know if it’s the technical word, but a smart power counters of smart grids because in the grids of Colombia, we have the optifier. All the grids of Colombia we’re using also because technically every power grid has also a fiber optic. So, we are working with the companies of energy and to take advantage of the optifier that the power grid has in Colombia. I think every power grid has to have fiber optic. So, we’re using that to connectivity too. And so, we are increasing new technologies in that way. We also, I can say we are working very hard on solar energy. We’re developing now 25 solar farms, investing a lot of money in wind energy. We have also 20 megabytes in wind energy we’re creating now, nowadays. So, I can say Colombia has a complete strategy, not just to the ICT sector, but to the Colombia sector to become one of the countries who will move forward and faster in terms of energy transition. As I said, not just as a ethical decision. We are going to do the COP16 in Colombia in two or three months, and in September, October in Cali. But also as a necessity, because we, as I said, we stopped exploring oil. So, we need the energy transition we can also a strategic economic decision for the Colombian economy and ICT is not left behind in this strategy.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you. Thank you very much for this insight. Just before I ask an open question for the other two speakers I just wanted to invite you already to put up to like think about your questions because we really want this to be an interactive dialogue so if you have any questions coming up for the second round of questions just you’d be very much invited to contribute to the conversation but thank you very much your excellency for giving us an insight into this government perspective where can governments do and what is Colombia doing which is fantastic. Of course the private sector can be a key alley to support specific initiatives so and now that we’ve heard from the government point of view Antonia I’d like to give you the floor to understand a little bit how Google is integrating sustainability into the development and deployment of ICTs and AI technologies to minimize the negative impacts but also to leverage positive benefits. Thank you.

Antonia Gawel:
Well it’s great to be here and to see everybody in this discussion which is indeed an important one and I think as Sally said bringing a lot of attention and focus at the moment. So I think you know both sides of this agenda are critically important and at Google of course we focus on both sides of that agenda. I think first of all sort of my focus over the past 20 years has very much been on tackling climate change working with governments private sector NGOs through my career and I think this is obviously something that we really all need to focus on and bring our best technological capabilities to this challenge given the speed at which we have to move. So one of the key focuses at Google of course is to how do you bring AI as a solution to tackling climate change and we did sort of work and research last year with BCG to assess kind of what the potential looks like and BCG effectively said look there is incredible potential between 5 and 10 percent emission reductions potential by 2030 by applying AI to the climate challenge. And we break that down I would say into three areas which Sally also alluded to. So one is information so how can how can we bring better information to the climate challenge using tools that leverage AI technologies. One just very brief example of that within Google is we have Google Maps as many of you might be aware we’ve created something called eco-friendly routing in Google Maps which uses AI and different technologies effectively to provide you if you’re searching for a destination with an optional route if it’s an artery the fastest one. will give you a path that enables fuel emission savings. So it’s sort of encouraging people to shift their driving habits using the information capabilities to say, look, you could A, save fuel and money by maybe shifting the directions that you take on a particular route. And this has actually enabled quite a significant amount of emission reductions, taking about 500,000 cars off the road since launch. So information is a critical part of the puzzle. The second, of course, is optimization. I think in the climate agenda, we’ve known for many, many years that energy efficiency, saving resources, is the lowest hanging fruit that we have at our disposal to actually be able to save emissions. So optimization is a critical part of that as well. So one brief example there, I think, touching on the issue of energy, is our Google X, our moonshot factory, has worked with the government of Chile, actually, to use AI to create a tool called Tapestry, which is basically modeling the entire electricity grid, so enabling a government, in this case, Chile, to be able to assess what’s happening on the grid in real time, but also into the future to try to really figure out how to optimize the entire system. So just another example. And the last one is prediction. So as Sally mentioned, this is not yet at the forefront of efforts. I would say within Google, in particular, our research domain, there’s been a huge amount of work in terms of building solutions to be able to predict the impacts of climate change in real time, really crisis management and response. So one brief example there is in partnership with the WMO here in Geneva, obviously. They’ve built out a technology called Flood Hub, which is existing in over 80 countries around the world, which enables up to seven days early prediction of flooding events, riverine flooding events, to be able to enable people on the ground to actually prepare for the impact of those types of floods. So prediction, given where we are in the climate journey, is increasingly critical. So flooding, extreme heat, and other types of solutions like this. So just quickly, information optimization prediction. We see incredible opportunity there. And we have a range of efforts that are really trying to double down on developing solutions for the climate challenge. Very quickly, of course, you also talked about the issue of the impact. How do we manage the environmental footprint of AI, which is equally critical? So very briefly, four quick examples there. So one is the actual model optimization. So within Google, we’ve obviously been working on machine learning and AI for many years. So we’ve basically developed tested practices to enable the efficiency of the. models themselves, which helps to save energy, make the models operate more effectively as well. And through these types of approaches, which we deploy in Googler and also trying to kind of socialize as well outside in the ecosystem of developers, we’ve been able to reduce the energy consumption of model development by about 100 times, but then save emissions up to over 1,000 times. So the actual models matter. The second is the infrastructure. So the actual technologies that are used to run these types of models is also critical. So really focusing on the efficiency of the infrastructure. A couple weeks ago in our developers conference, we launched our next generation TPU. So Trillium is the name of it. And it’s basically really trying to drive more and more efficiency into the actual processing of AI. And through this new technology infrastructure, we’re able to save 67% of energy. So it’s more energy efficient, 67% more energy efficient than our last version, which continuing to drive that efficiency in the infrastructure and the data centers is a critical part of the picture. And we’ve seen this progress over time. Emission reductions also. So we know that emissions are local in a sense. So very much we’re talking about power at the end of the day. And so within Google, we’ve set a net zero target by 2030 and also to operate on carbon-free energy 24-7. So that means every grid that we operate in, how do we ensure that we’re running on 24 by 7 carbon-free energy in those local grids? And we’re basically 64% of the way there. So really ensuring that the grid supply of electricity is a critical part of this picture. And lastly, water was also mentioned as well. I think water is basically used for cooling in data centers. So we’ve set a goal of 120% replenishment by 2030, which means we replace 120% of the fresh water that we consume, both through data centers, but also offices. And also apply effectively a water risk framework. So looking very carefully at the local water ecosystems, which again, if you work on water, it’s localized, right? So how do you make sure? that you’re thinking carefully about the local water health, where you’re operating, thinking about where your data centers are actually being sited in order to make sure that you not only are optimal in terms of water, but also, again, coming back to the replenishment of the ecosystems as well. So I’ll leave it at that. But happy to continue with the discussion as well.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you. Thank you very much for, again, highlighting the positive and the negative aspects and giving details of what Google is doing. One challenge that hasn’t come up so far a lot yet in the interventions is the transparency aspect, which is currently a key priority for ITU, also where the private and the public perspectives are very important. So the estimates of the global share of ICT sector emissions are currently ranging across literature around 1.5% to 4%, which is quite a big scale. And standards are very important to shed some light on that. How can the industry measure the same things? How can the data sets be made publicly available, but in a comparable manner? So it’s great, Jean-Manuel, that you’re here today. Can you tell us a little bit more about how international standards address the sustainability and environmental impact of ICTs and AI technologies? And if you’re currently developing new standards in this regard, thank you.

Jean Manuel Canet:
OK, thank you so much, Robin, for this invitation. Thank you to all the speakers. And so about these standards, I believe you pronounced a key word, which is transparency. We do need transparency in order to understand and to assess in the best possible manner the impact of artificial intelligence, the impact of ICT in general. And for this, international standards, they are useful because they provide a detailed guidance on the boundaries to set for these assessments, on the different steps that need to be performed, and all the aspects that have to be taken into account. So if we take artificial intelligence, for instance, a standard can help you draw the boundaries to understand which software, which hardware you have to take into account, the different, let’s say, steps in artificial intelligence that you have to consider. Would it be the training? of the machines, the use of artificial intelligence by end users, and so a standard with its rigor, with its clear distinction of different steps, can help in this. And so here we are all together today in, let’s say, like the core reactor of the development of the standards of the ITU. See, we are in the Mont Brion building, which is a building which sees a lot of developments of standards by the ITU-T. And in particular, today I represent the collective effort from the so-called Study Group 5, which is a study group dedicated to climate, biodiversity, environment. And in the frame of this study group, we have many activities from already, which started several years ago, which are dedicated to develop practical guidance on how to assess the impact of ICT, including AI, on environment. And when I say environment, that means, of course, greenhouse gas emissions. But not only, as Sally, you mentioned, greenhouse gas emissions, they are one category of very important impact. We all know the urgency of acting, but biodiversity is a very important topic, as Her Excellency has mentioned, and let’s say pollution in general, water consumption. And so we have developed standards that tackle several kinds of environmental impacts. So I can, for instance, mention the L.1410, ITU L.1410, which is available for free in the ITU website. All standards from the ITU are available for free. This is currently under revision. It looks at the impact of ICT goods, networks, services, solutions on the environment and considers all categories of environmental impact. Another example that I can mention is a standard which is dedicated to the assessment of the impact of the use of ICT solutions, which may be, for instance, artificial intelligence. So we had a lot of excellent examples of the usage of AI to protect Amazonia, the usage of AI to optimize electricity grids in Chile. So there are many examples on this side, the usage of AI to better understand as well how the climate is evolving and how biodiversity could also be impacted. The usage of ICT solutions, the usage of AI, it is important to assess generally what can be the impact on the environment of that. And so we have developed this standard which is named L.1480, also available for free. I recommend that if you are interested that you go and have a look at this one. And this uses a so-called consequential approach, so that when a practitioner looks at this very complex question, what’s the impact of artificial, the use of artificial intelligence in other sectors of the economy, then the practitioner can look at, from a consequential point of view, the direct impacts, the fact that some, let’s say equipment as we have in front of us, have been built to allow the AI to be operated. We look at what we call the indirect effects or second-order effects, the benefits, but also, and this was mentioned already, the rebound effects, because we can expect some general changes, of course, that can be very important due to the impact, the implementation of artificial intelligence in our society. And just to end quickly, so we have started new standards. I invite and we invite you all to participate in the development of these new standards, in particular looking at the aspect of the impact of software, because this is a difficult area and we believe that with sharing knowledge, best practices, and views on how to assess the impact of software in particular, we can make some good progress and we intend to consent and to develop a recommendation on that.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you. Thank you very much, Jean-Manuel. Just also to tie back to Green Digital Action very briefly, of course, there’s a big set and a lot of knowledge there in the standards. And you’ve already mentioned the invitation to support or to be active, to play an active role in the standards development process. And Green Digital Action is taking the next step on that. And it has brought together a group of private and public organizations to see how can the implementation of green standards be accelerated. There is some good work on that one also in the telecommunications sector. But with Green Digital Action and COP28, we have we have launched an action plan at COP28 to to accelerate this implementation of standards. So and we’re continuing to work on this. So everybody’s invited to join that one as well, if you’re interested. All right. I’ll just briefly pause. I have a few follow up questions to other speakers, but I just wanted to see if there’s any questions from the audience at this stage already. So, yes, please go ahead. And maybe you could say your name and your organization. Thank you. Absolutely.

Audience:
Thank you very much for the panelists today for showing up. My name is Tilman Sil. I’m from the Federal Ministry of the Environment of Germany. And what I’m really looking for are cradle to cradle examples in the ICT sectors. So I’m talking about sustainability by design. And to illustrate my point, I don’t think that many of us have like, for example, phones that you can just open, that you can actually repair by yourself, that you can switch batteries, whatever. What we used to do when we were younger is not possible anymore. And also with like my business phone, I can’t do that. So my question is to all of the panelists, do you have like some good examples I can extract here from this very nice panel, which I can bring back home, which are based on a cradle to cradle sustainability perspective? Thank you very much.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you. Thank you very much for this. And unless there’s any volunteers, I will. would like to volunteer, Jean-Manuel actually, because I know also within Study Group 5 there’s a lot of work on circular economy related standards.

Jean Manuel Canet:
Thank you. Yeah, I believe that you probably know this example, but the example of the Fairphone, for instance, which is developed with this intention to cover really a cradle-to-cradle perspective, that is to say, to have a repairable object, to have an object where the different parts can be reused, where you can replace some parts if you want, and also having a sustainable supply approach, that is to say, having, taking care really in the supply chain on the way this is supplied, and whenever possible, to source, let’s say, materials that already have been used in another context. This is like a step forward. It is not easy. We all know it’s not easy. It’s very difficult to tackle the cradle-to-cradle approach, but there are some examples.

Oscar Mauricio Lizcano Arango:
We in Colombia have a program called Computers for Education, in which we took the computers for the people, or people who dispose of the computers, and we disarm the computers, and we reuse some of the parts of the computers to build new computers to schools, especially to underserved and poor schools. It is a very, very well-known program in Colombia, Computers for Schools, when we use the parts of the disposal computers to renew it and send it to schools, especially underserved and poor areas’ schools. This is one example, for example, what we do in Colombia.

Antonia Gawel:
I mean, I can briefly add to the discussion. I agree, this is an incredibly important domain, in terms of materials, but also because materials are inherently equally responsible for global climate impacts as well. So, indeed, at Google, we have targets around the circular economy, so in phones and devices, targets around the inclusion of recycled content, for example, materials, plastics, safe materials as well, so ensuring that the actual materials in the phones are safe from a sort of chemicals perspective. Looking at product longevity, I think ensuring that kind of products are designed to last as long as possible, including the ability to update the software for a long period of time. Equally within the data centers as well, you know, as was mentioned, the infrastructure behind a lot of the technology is also critical, so including circular economy objectives within the data centers, looking at zero waste to landfill, looking at using the servers and being able to kind of use the servers as long as possible, refurbish them as long as possible, but also ensure that they have a second life as well. So there’s a range of, I think, domains in which we can implement the circular economy and it’s very much at the center of our sustainability strategy as well.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you very much. Thank you as well. Just one addition as well, is ITU last year released a guideline for sustainable and circular public procurement of ICTs. So there might be some interesting pointers in there on how the practitioners that are actually procuring the equipment can make sure that these kind of cradle to cradle principles are taken into account when you decide as a government as well, what equipments to buy, for example. Thank you. Are there any other questions from the audience? Yes, please go ahead.

Audience:
Thank you. Good morning and thank you to the moderators for the insights that you’ve shared. I think I quite find commendable, for example, the minister from Colombia, when he made the comment about how about 85% of their power consumption is coming from clean energy. I think my question relates to a comment he made about the extent of research that they’re putting into developing ICT tools that are a bit more energy consumption efficient and things like that. And I’m wondering about the extent to which there’s any universal consensus around, because you see, when you design those kinds of solutions, it introduces inefficiencies in the manufacturing process, I would like to believe, right, if they have to then cater to the Colombian requirements versus other less stringent global standards. I just wanted to understand maybe an extent to which there’s a collaboration around exporting or identifying those efficiencies at the, maybe at the larger scale and the extent to which there’s international collaboration in the research. that they are sponsoring or supporting. Thank you.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you. Thank you very much. In my point of view, the question is directed also towards, you know, starting at the very beginning in the standards development process. And Jean Manuel, could you maybe say a little bit something about, you know, the inclusiveness of how standards are developed? Thank you.

Jean Manuel Canet:
Yeah, the standard, the purpose of the standard is to be, let’s say, usable by all and to, let’s say, to serve the most, the largest possible community. And of course, they are developed in a consensus way, the standards. And so the best practices, such as the one that was mentioned by Rexanne, let’s see, they are shared in the development, during the development of the standards, let’s say. And we do take them into account as in the best possible manner when we, let’s say, write, actually, the standard. So this is a key topic, of course.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you. We actually have the privilege of having my colleague, Reyna, here, who’s coordinating study group five. So, Reyna, please go ahead.

Audience:
Sorry, just to add a bit, and also for the inclusiveness, we have a program that is called Bridging the Standardization Gap. And there are also the regional groups. So there are regional groups for the African region, for the Arab region, for Asian, the Pacific and for Latin America. What is important that the region participate in the standard development? Because we have seen that there are some countries that participate more than others. For example, from Africa, we need more participation in some other topics. There is some participation in e-waste, but there is a lack of participation on topics more related maybe to raw material, circular design. Right now, there is this discussion about the digital product passport, for example, that right now the discussion is being held in Europe, but it will affect other regions as well. So our our job and our mission is how we involve all the regions, and the regional group is a good way to do it. So, just to tell you, and this happens not just for study group five, that you also happen with other study groups that ITU has here. So, thank you.

Oscar Mauricio Lizcano Arango:
Well, as I mentioned, Colombia has worked on, okay, yes, we created this fund, as I told you, we created this fund in terms of how to encourage the ecosystem of Colombia to create new ideas, and we put some millions of dollars on this fund in a partnership with the Minister of Science of Colombia, and we want to create research, but also, but of course, it has to be globally solutions of these terms. It’s not a Colombian solution. Of course, if we want to tackle the climate change, or we want to create new technologies in terms of consume or reduce the consumption of energy for ICT, in terms of decision transportation, data centers, etc., I think it has to be global, not just from the way from the standards, as he said, but also the way of cooperation. That’s why I think ICT, ITU, sorry, can play a very important role in coordinating all the global efforts. That’s why this kind of conferences are so important. In a way, we can find not just new strategies, new solutions, but also we can align and work all together in a really solution that can be applied in different countries. So, we as Colombia, we are working from locally, decentralizing, but also we are looking forward and open to discuss this to our countries. new technologies which we can adapt or we can find solutions. That’s why, as he mentioned, standardization is so important for this process.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you very much, sir. All right, we have exactly two minutes left. So I’d like to just address the same question to all the speakers. Please keep your answers broad, although it might be a tricky one to keep a short answer to. So in your opinion, what are the key steps or actions that need to be taken by all stakeholders to keep the ICT sector negative environmental impacts under control?

Jean Manuel Canet:
To keep it short, to put more effort in studying the environmental impact of ICT and AI.

Robin Zuercher:
That was really very short. Thank you very much, Jean-Manuel. Antonia?

Antonia Gawel:
I mean, I think very much a focus on decarbonization of the power sector is a critical input and a significant part of the footprint. So working together to ensure that grids around the world are becoming decarbonized for many purposes. So that’s one key. And I think deploying a lot of the solutions that exist. So as I mentioned, model efficient solutions, efficient infrastructure. So ensuring that these types of practices are deployed across the sector as well will equally be critical. Because as we’ve seen, it can really help reduce 100 times in terms of power consumption, 1,000 times in terms of emissions. So really scaling those practices we would certainly encourage.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you very much, Antonia. Your Excellency?

Oscar Mauricio Lizcano Arango:
I will say that we have to be aware of our policy makers that every step of the ICT process has to be developed and sustainable. That means that from the constructions, that means from the decisions we take, from the deployment of any of the steps. stages, and also from the consumption part of the communities, last mile, that we talk in this sector. So I think it’s be really aware that it’s not just a part of the of the process that the whole part of the ICT system has to be developed, sustainable, and environmental sustainable.

Robin Zuercher:
Thank you. Thank you very much to all the speakers. I think there’s a lot more to be said. But I think we covered a pretty good range within 45 minutes. And just as a very last word, Antonio, also, you mentioned and Sally as well in the beginning predictions. And just in case this isn’t a topic that is of interest to anyone in the audience, there’s two very interesting sessions going on at the AI for good summit one as we speak, it’s a full day workshop today on AI and predictions on climate predictions, and then tomorrow afternoon on AI and early warning systems. So just in case you’re interested. All right. Thank you very much, everyone for joining. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. you