IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015 - 40

This definition suggests that there are natural reasons for climate change, but it is generally accepted that the impact of human activities significantly
speeds up global warming, as a consequence of
the greenhouse effect.
It is a fact that the Earth's climate has changed
disproportionately more quickly since the early 20th

ICT has the potential to enable
energy and emissions savings in
all economic sectors.

century [8]. This change has a clear trend, mainly recognized by increasing average global temperatures, known
as global warming. If the trend of global warming continues, it is expected to have a strong impact on the
climate system. It will affect the landscape, biodiversity,
ecosystems, and humans. The global mean temperature will rise and local weather conditions will shift.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) Annex I Parties [1] have managed
to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions, but this
stands in contrast to the development of global emissions, which increased by 31 percent between1990
and 2010 [2]. In spite of international political agreements on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, global

Economic

Institutional

Social

Environmental

Figure 1. The three dimensions of sustainable development [9]

concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
are still increasing by a global average of about 6 percent (CO2 emissions grew 5.9% in 2010 to reach 9.1 GtC
(33.5Gt CO2)) and reached an all-time peak at a level of
439 ppm CO2 equivalent in 2009. A limit of 450 ppm
CO2 equivalent has been considered to keep the rise of
the global mean temperature to 2 ˚C [3].
The ICT sector (including personal computers and
peripherals, telecoms networks and devices, and data
centers) contributes about 2 percent to total global CO2
emissions [3]. However, more often than as a producer
of CO2 emissions, ICT is seen as enabling technology
for achieving sustainability improvements. The Climate
Group and Global e-Sustainability Initiative estimates
a potential for ICT-based technological solutions to
reduce 15 percent of global GHG emissions by 2020
while delivering energy efficiency measures, resulting
in over U.S. $1 trillion in savings to global business. A
technology is an enabling technology if its use implicates great changes in the abilities of its user [4]. ICT
has the potential to enable energy and emissions savings in all economic sectors. Based on Fig. 3, this article
highlights the role of ICT in a low carbon society. The
enabling effect of ICT can be specified as "the ability of ICT solutions to facilitate emissions reductions by
means of improved visibility, management and optimization of processes, and behavioral change as a result
of better information provision" [5].

Economic Growth and
Sustainable Development
Today industry and economies are challenged to combine economic growth and sustainability.
Sustainability is the ability to sustain, which has its
origin in the Latin word sustinere, with the meaning of
"to uphold." The term sustainability can be described
as the prolongation or the maintenance of the current
state, which today is mostly put into an environmental
context. It is the property of keeping natural resources
for future generations. In relation to economics, sustainable development is the key issue in the process of
achieving sustainability.
The most commonly used definition of the term
dates back to a report of the World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987 also
known as the Brundtland Commission:
"Sustainable development is development that
meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs" [7].
This definition positions sustainability in terms of
human needs and environmental capacity, as goal of

IEEE TEchnology and SocIETy MagazInE

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MARCH 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015