Working Group on the Impacts of the Ict on the Environment for
A lot of questions concerning the information society’s impacts on the environment are open. These are questions like: Do information and communication technologies
(ICT) increase or decrease our energy demand? On the one hand side there are ever and ever more applications, Internet surfing time is permanently increasing etc. and on the other hand information technologies allow us to design work processes more energy efficiently or even manage our household. The various positive and negative direct and indirect impacts are numerous and some may even cancel each other out.
We are still lacking answers regarding:
What are the main impacts related to the new information and telecommunication technologies (state of the art)? How do we evaluate the risks (methods)? How can we decrease the negative impacts? How to evaluate the impacts of the rebound effect? What role can the politics play? How should these technologies evolve to become more environmentally friendly? How to make them evolving in this way?
In the context of the World Summit on the Information Society, a working group on the impacts of the ICT on the environment has been created.
Goals
We want to propose the environment as a topic for the summit. Furthermore we want to come up with a declaration/ workshop at the main summit showing the importance of environmental aspects of the information society and raise consciousness by that.
To achieve these goals, the working group will carry out the following activities:
1. Bring together experts to:
- Identify the key points related to this theme;
- Launch collaboration and help politicians to understand the most important environmental issues and their interlinkage with the other aspects of sustainability; - Provide advice on possible solutions.
2. Participate at the PrepComs, organise a debate in the preparation phase of the summit. 3. Inform government's representatives aiming to exert influence on their position
vis-à-vis
(ICT) increase or decrease our energy demand? On the one hand side there are ever and ever more applications, Internet surfing time is permanently increasing etc. and on the other hand information technologies allow us to design work processes more energy efficiently or even manage our household. The various positive and negative direct and indirect impacts are numerous and some may even cancel each other out.
We are still lacking answers regarding:
What are the main impacts related to the new information and telecommunication technologies (state of the art)? How do we evaluate the risks (methods)? How can we decrease the negative impacts? How to evaluate the impacts of the rebound effect? What role can the politics play? How should these technologies evolve to become more environmentally friendly? How to make them evolving in this way?
In the context of the World Summit on the Information Society, a working group on the impacts of the ICT on the environment has been created.
Goals
We want to propose the environment as a topic for the summit. Furthermore we want to come up with a declaration/ workshop at the main summit showing the importance of environmental aspects of the information society and raise consciousness by that.
To achieve these goals, the working group will carry out the following activities:
1. Bring together experts to:
- Identify the key points related to this theme;
- Launch collaboration and help politicians to understand the most important environmental issues and their interlinkage with the other aspects of sustainability; - Provide advice on possible solutions.
2. Participate at the PrepComs, organise a debate in the preparation phase of the summit. 3. Inform government's representatives aiming to exert influence on their position
vis-à-vis