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Built-in ICT resilience needed to face climate change
Report calls for mainstreaming of climate change adaptation principles
Geneva, 28 April 2014 – Adaptive practices for the ICT
sector will become part of the ‘new normal’ as climate change impacts increase.
This is a key conclusion of a new report produced by ITU along with
UNFCCC and
UNESCO with support from
Deutsche Telekom.
The report titled “Resilient
Pathways: The adaptation of the ICT sector to climate change”
recommends that positioning climate change in the sector’s agenda requires the
active engagement of stakeholders at all levels, fostering the adoption of
innovative measures to better cope with, respond and adjust to change. The
reports launch follows the addition of a new ICT Solutions pillar in the
UNFCCC’s
Momentum for Change initiative which ITU welcomes
as a very positive step towards strengthening the transformational potential of
ICTs as part of climate change responses.
The “resilient pathways” highlighted in this report constitute desirable
routes of action amidst an increasingly interdependent and changing
international environment. These pathways can allow the ICT sector to go beyond
short-term reactive measures, in order to improve its overall adaptability to
future unforeseen effects, while approaching adaptation from a collaborative,
multi-level perspective.
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré: “Mainstreaming climate-resilient
innovation in research and development needs to become a priority. We need to
foster a new, more flexible mindset and new learning processes to take into
account robustness in the face of climate change impact when designing these
fundamental technologies. ITU, together with key partners like UNESCO, UNFCCC
and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), stand ready to support the
international community in this endeavour.”
Luis Neves, Group Sustainability and Climate Change Officer, Deutsche
Telekom: “It’s clear that the ICT industry is a powerful force in terms of
adapting to climate change. For precisely that reason it’s equally clear that we
must generate new solutions with resilience in mind. This report provides some
concrete guidelines for industry on how to incorporate some of those principles
into the development of new technology.”
The report recommends a number of adaptive actions based on the principle of
resilience. It highlights, for example, the need for improvements in
telecommunication service coverage, particularly in locations vulnerable to
climate change impacts. It also recommends the development of new work to
strengthen the resilience of ICT infrastructure, such as those taking place in
ITU-T’s
Focus Group on Disaster Relief Systems, Network Resilience and Recovery
(FG-DR&NRR) and ITU-T’s
Study Group 5 “Environment and Climate Change”.
It notes that ICT sector stakeholders face the challenge of building greater
awareness of, and resilience to climate change impacts, especially in the
context of increasingly interconnected and interdependent business and supply
chains. In this respect the report highlights the
Nairobi Work Programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to
climate change (NWP), of which ITU is a partner.
Also recommended in Resilient Pathways are the implementation of novel
approaches to improve systems’ diversity and interoperability, including
virtualization, server networks and system backup, in order to ensure
intra-sector redundancy, and thus the continuity of services and operations
during climatic disturbances.
The Resilient Pathways report is part of ITU’s efforts to deepen
multi-stakeholder collaboration and foster innovative responses to the
challenges posed by climate change. It responds to an increasing interest within
the international community on the significant potential of ICTs as part of
climate change strategies, and aims at stimulating the exchange of experiences
in this field.
Information on ITU-T’s activities on climate change can be found at:
www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/climatechange/Pages/default.aspx
For more information, please contact:
Sanjay Acharya
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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Toby Johnson
Senior Communication Officer, ITU
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