February 6, 2009 / By Tiffany Fox, (858) 246-0353, tfox@ucsd.edu
San Diego, CA, Feb. 6, 2009 — Global warming is an equal-opportunity crisis, with nearly all industries — including the information and communications technology (ICT) sector — contributing to the planet's ever-increasing carbon footprint. But with its wide-ranging influence, unparalleled access to data and knack for innovation, ICT is also uniquely poised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and a group of leading experts in the field met recently at the University of California, San Diego to discuss where that path may lead.
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Held Jan. 22-23 at UC San Diego's California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), the first "Greening the Internet Economy" Symposium consisted of two days of panel discussions, presentations and keynote speeches about ICT's role in our carbon-constrained world. In attendance were nearly 175 representatives from a wide swath of California's economy, including AT&T, Cisco, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel and Qualcomm, as well as academic representatives from UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and UCSD, and government officials from the California State Legislature.
The conference was timely given the approval by California’s Air Resource Board (CARB) in December of the AB 32 Climate Change Scoping Plan, which recommends specific steps to help California decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent over the next 12 years, to 1990 levels. The Scoping Plan is a major milestone for the landmark Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32, signed into law in 2006 with a goal of reducing more than 170 million tons of emissions from California's skies by 2020.
Three key recommendations emerged from the symposium: 1) A push to establish an interactive, cross-disciplinary research portal that links climate information from a variety of scientific and government studies; 2) the need for a green ICT advisory group to oversee the portal and coordinate collaboration and 3) the establishment of an annual review. Calit2 is soliciting community input on these recommendations, as well as private and public sector funding opportunities, particularly those pertaining to President Obama's proposed $165 billion economic stimulus allocation for infrastructure and science.
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Google's Green Energy Czar Bill Weihl, one of two keynote speakers at the event, emphasized the careful balancing act that policymakers and industry must negotiate to ensure that any regulatory changes are meaningful and lasting, yet do not hinder economic growth. According to a report released by Forrester Research, green information technology is currently a $500 million market and it is expected to grow to $4.8 billion by 2013.
"ICT accounts for 2 percent (of global carbon emissions), but ICT technologies can be used to reduce the other 98 percent worldwide" Weihl added. "Right now, 80 percent of the people on the planet don't have computational access, but by bringing them into the fold, that will mean a lot more emissions. I think some people feel that simply through efficiency, we can get where we need to go. But for it to become the economically sensible choice for everyone, we've got to find technologies that will allow us to produce energy cleanly and cheaply."
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Calit2 Director Larry Smarr noted that to develop those technologies, industry will require experimental "test-beds," which is where higher education would come in. He encouraged industry to partner with community colleges and research universities to create "living laboratories of the green future, in which we could prototype a wide range of innovative ideas." He also said community colleges have a critical role in training a new generation of green workers.
One example of how ICT is already greening the internet economy is the California Public Utilities Commissions' deployment of smart, network-integrated energy meters. The meters are being rolled-out by the hundreds of thousands in homes across California and will provide real-time feedback to consumers, enabling them to proactively monitor their energy use while at the same time improving reliability and reducing operating costs. The so-called "smart grids" were recognized in The Climate Group's Smart2020 report as the largest ICT opportunity to decrease global carbon emissions by 2.03 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
"Government policies, technological innovation and the active participation of consumers are all important parts of the solution and are necessary to overcoming the challenges we face," said CPUC President Michael Peevey in his keynote address at the symposium. "Today's policies largely leave it up to the marketplace to develop and provide solutions ... but these devices must be ones that consumers will actually buy, and then use.
"Collectively," he continued, "we and many others must figure out the type of display technology the consumer will respond to, the optimal trade off of functionality versus cost that leads to mass adoption of these devices, the most meaningful energy information to display, the control functions, if any, that consumers want and the energy management services that would be attractive to consumers. These are just some of the questions that need to be addressed if we are to achieve the maximum possible energy efficiency and savings." Smarr referred to the President's statement as providing the perfect research agenda for campus "living labs."
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Peevey's questions, though specific to the smart grid meters, apply to multiple sectors of the green internet economy, from datacenter design to intelligent transportation and academic cyberinfrastructures. CPUC Commissioner Rachelle Chong said she joined forces with Smarr to host the event and "break down some silos to bring disparate people together to talk about these important issues."
"What we're hoping," she added, "is that this group, the best and the brightest that we could think of, is going to help take affirmative steps to start changing the climate change problem by using the ICT sector. ICT itself can empower other business and consumers to reduce their greenhouse gas impacts."
Jerry Sheehan, director of government relations at Calit2, said the event was remarkable for its wide-ranging participation.
"The thing that was most unique about this symposium was that it was held in partnership with a state agency (the California Public Utilities Commission) and had incredible participation from industry and academia on the panels and in the audience," he remarked. "This uniting of the various stakeholders — public, private, academic — to work collaboratively on problems impacting citizens in California is one of the core reasons the Institutes for Science and Innovation (Cal ISI) were created by the University of California."
As one of the four institutes that make up Cal ISI, Calit2 will continue to play a leading role in future efforts to mitigate carbon emissions in California and beyond, said Smarr.
"The Climate Group's Smart2020 report says that we can reduce the global carbon footprint by at least 15 percent through the application of ICT technologies," he added. "This shows this intimate, intricate, complex relationship between reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ICT itself and through the application of ICT. Here at Calit2 that's our day job. We're half applications and half ICT, and it's the synergy between those things that is what we try to bring to the table."
Related Links
Larry Smarr's Op-Ed piece about the symposium and the road ahead
Greening the Internet Economy Web Site
California Public Utilities Commission
California Air Resources Board
Media Contacts
Tiffany Fox, (858) 246-0353, tfox@ucsd.edu