Excellencies,
Ministers,
Councilors
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

This morning we have the first of two sessions on climate change. Our subject this morning is Combating Climate Change through ICTs.

This is an extremely important topic for our industry. By most estimates, ICTs presently contribute 2 to 2.5 percent of total GHG emissions, although this excludes emission caused by broadcasting.

There have been many success stories in the ICT field and the sector is growing rapidly in terms of the number of ICT users, and deployment of networks and services. But this very success raises the stakes for climate change, as the sector must find ways to control and limit its emissions, while continuing its growth.

New developments in technology can help. Next Generation Networks are a major focus of our new standards and ITU recently published a Technology Watch report showing that the energy savings from the deployment of NGN compared to PSTN could be as much as 40%. Better use of power-saving modes for ICT equipment can reduce emissions and this is another important area of our work to address climate change. For example our new broadband standard VDSL-2 has three power modes compared with VDSL-1 which was on full power all the time.

But what is more significant is the impact ICTs can have on reducing the emissions of the other industry sectors which contribute most of the GHG emissions: energy generation; transportation; and buildings. ICTs can be a key enabling technology to reduce emissions in many sectors. Some studies show that ICTs can reduce the total GHG emissions of other sectors by a factor of five compared to the emissions produced by the ICT sector itself. Examples include smart buildings, videoconferencing, on-line commerce, teleworking, traffic management etc. Estimates of the savings vary from 15% to 40%, but even taking the most conservative estimate the savings in energy consumption that can be achieved through the application of ICTs would be around $900 billion by the year 2020. There is therefore a tremendously good news story for the ICT industry to exploit.

The potential role of ICTs in environmental protection and sustainable development was first recognized in ITU back in 1994. Although its role in environmental monitoring and disaster relief is well understood, its role in combating climate change has only received a major emphasis in ITU over the past year or so. As we will hear today and tomorrow, all three of ITU’s sectors are active on climate change issues. For example, there are programs in the Radio Sector to facilitate climate monitoring, and in Development Sector to examine sustainability issues and emergency telecommunications. ITU’s increased activity in this area was given a significant impetus by the UN Secretary-General when he visited us last year and stated that ITU is one of the most important stakeholder in terms of climate change, and encouraged us to play a greater role.

Initially there was some skeptism as to what role ITU could play in combating climate change. However after the publication of our Technology Watch report on ICTs and Climate Change there was an enthusiastic response from our membership and a number of initiatives were taken. We held major symposia in Kyoto and London to consider the link between ICTs and Climate Change and more events are being planned. One outcome was the establishment of a Focus Group to develop internationally agreed standardised methodologies to measure the impact of ICTs on climate change, both in direct and indirect terms.

At the recent World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly in South Africa, the ITU membership adopted a major resolution on climate change. The Assembly declared that ITU members will work towards reducing ICT’s carbon footprint, while promoting ICT “as a potent and cross-cutting tool to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all economic and social activities”. The resolution resolves to work toward reductions in GHG emissions necessary to meet the goals of UN Framework Convention. It invites the ITU Secretary-General “to continue to cooperate and collaborate with other entities within the United Nations in formulating future international efforts for the effective addressing of climate change”. During the Global Standards Symposium which was held prior to WTSA, leaders of industry recognized that the industry can set an example by committing to specific programs with objectives to reduce overall GHG emissions.

ITU is also actively involved in work of the UN system to combat climate change

Climate change is one of the priorities of the UN System and of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. We were fortunate to hear his message earlier this morning and in his visit last year to ITU he stressed the important role that ICTs can play in moderating climate change.

The UN system has made a commitment to attain climate neutrality within three years and is also dedicated to 'Delivering as One' in its efforts to help countries address this problem. Each agency and program of the UN is contributing in its areas of expertise and we are fortunate this morning to have present some of the leaders of the UN system in this effort.

Our session today is particularly timely, as a major meeting will take place in Poznan, Poland next month on a new global agreement on climate change, which is expected to be finalized in Copenhagen in December 2009. For that reason, it is particularly welcome that part of the HLS is devoted to climate change and we are fortunate to have an eminent group of speakers to address this crucial topic today and tomorrow.

Let me then introduce all our speakers for this session and then I will give each of them the floor.

Our opening Speaker is H.E. Mr. Ramon Linares, the First Deputy Minster of Information and Communications of Cuba. Many scientists link the increase in extreme weather events to climate change and Cuba is one of the island states that have suffered greatly in the past years from the ravages of hurricanes.

A key element to combat climate change is monitoring of scientific and climate data. Mr. Michel Jarraud is Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) based in Geneva. ITU and WMO are close partners in this effort.

Another neighbor in Geneva and member of the UN system is UNCTAD. Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi is the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He was formerly Director-General of the WTO and Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand. ITU has worked closely with UNCTAD in many areas, including the Commission on Science and Technology for Development.

There has been much discussion of the relation between climate change, alternative fuels and food security. We will have a message on behalf of Jacque Diouf, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization, based in Rome. The message will be delivered by Peter Holmgren, Director of the Division of Environment, Climate change and Bioenergy.

Following the opening addresses I will open the floor to Councilors for questions to the speakers or for general comments and remarks on climate change.

So without further ado I invite H.E. Mr. Ramon Linares, First Deputy Minster of Information and Communications, Cuba to give us his address