Throughout the industrialized world legislation for greenhouse gas emissions is being, or will likely be enacted, over the coming years. These programs will introduce significant operational/financial cost impacts as well as opportunities for many industrial sectors. In anticipation, some organizations are already proactively developing emissions reduction plans and low-carbon investment strategies not only to reduce their energy dependencies, but in some cases to also position themselves to capitalize on emerging carbon market opportunities.
ICTs have the potential to play a leading role in such emissions reduction plans and low-carbon investment strategies. An analysis by The Climate Group in partnership with the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), and McKinsey suggests that smart solutions enabled by Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) could save 7.8 Gt CO2e in 2020, or 15% of global emissions in 2020.
However, in order to achieve their full energy conservation potential; smart building, smart appliance, smart transportation, and smart energy grid applications will need to be integrated through the convergence of telecoms, energy, transportation, and building infrastructures. Such convergence will also be necessary if we want to increase inputs from variable and intermittent sources of renewable energy to our energy grids. One of the major obstacles confronting such convergence is the different modus operandi and regulatory bodies of each industry.
ICT standards will be instrumental to overcoming such obstacles and allowing disparate smart applications emerging from each industry to interact enabling a sum impact greater than its parts. Standardizing information sharing protocols for tracking energy consumption will enable industries to collaborate on energy conservation strategies, the monitoring of direct and quantification of equivalent emissions, and the buying and selling of renewable sources of energy.
Standards will also be an important first step towards ICT enabled smart system initiatives to capitalize on emerging carbon market opportunities, particularly as more flexible arrangements are being considered to replace the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol. Rigorous, internationally agreed standards and methodologies need to be applied to qualify GHG emissions measurements and savings calculations. ICT standards for integrated smart systems developed to meet to these requirements would position the information gathered by these systems for immediate consideration in carbon market mechanisms. This holds the potential for consideration of further emission reduction incentives, beyond the direct economic benefits of achieving energy efficiencies, which could help accelerate innovation and adoption of smart system applications.
