Green innovation for ICT a must

While on computers, here's another recent report. According to the 18-month analysis by the Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (ISAID) in Singapore and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, the ICT industry in the US is on course to grow its carbon emissions at twice the rate of its contributions to gross domestic product (GDP).

Hence, it must adopt energy efficiency technologies over the next decade to stay profitable in the face of limits on carbon emissions.

The researchers looked different devices in use, how much energy they use and how that consumption will be affected by growth in demand.

Although the items in question, like PCs, laptops, smart phones and games consoles, do not emit CO2 per se, the researchers looked at the electricity used to power them and factored in the potential effects of cleaner production in future.

The study calculates that emissions related to PCs and laptops, which currently account for around 48.5% of global ICT emissions, could quadruple by 2020, while those arising from data centres, games consoles and mobile phones could triple.