Tilt

ITU Symposium on

ICTs and Climate Change

Hosted by CITIC

Quito, Ecuador, 8-10 July 2009

ITU background report

1. INTRODUCTION

Over the past few years, the issue of climate change has become a main item on the global agenda. The UN Secretary-General, in his visit to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), observed that “Climate change is the moral challenge of our generation” and that “ITU is one of the most important stakeholders in terms of climate change.” Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, the ITU Secretary-General, has stated that “Climate Change is a global challenge that the world cannot lose” and that “ITU is committed to achieving climate neutrality and to working with our membership to promote the use of ICTs as an effective tool to combat climate change.” The impact of ICTs on the environment has been a longstanding concern at the ITU, dating back to the International Radio Conference of Atlantic City, 1947, where ITU Member States included Meteorological Aids Service (MetAids) in Radio Regulations and allocated radio frequency spectrum for MetAids applications employed for environment and climate monitoring. At the Plenipotentiary Conference 1994 in Kyoto (Japan), ITU Member States adopted Resolution 35 “Telecommunication support for the protection of the environment” that resolves “that the Union shall give every possible encouragement to an increasing role being played by telecommunication and information technologies in promoting environmental protection and sustainable development […].” 1 The World Telecommunication Development Conferences, in 1998 (Resolution 8, Valletta 2 ), in 2002 (Recommendation 7, Istanbul 3 ) and in 2006 (Resolution 54, Doha 4 ) invited the Telecommunication Development Sector, in general, and the Telecommunication Development Bureau in particular, to assist developing countries in the use of telecommunications for the protection of the environment. The last Radiocommunication Assembly 2007 (RA-07) and the World...