Comments on: IT Bolstered by U.S. Energy-Efficiency Agenda http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/11/03/it-bolstered-by-u-s-energy-efficiency-agenda/ Environmental Leader Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:25:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Phil Wilcock http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/11/03/it-bolstered-by-u-s-energy-efficiency-agenda/comment-page-1/#comment-160220 Phil Wilcock Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:19:14 +0000 http://www.environmentalleader.com/?p=26633#comment-160220 Copehnagen is a mere 33 days away and while everyone is looking at the road to the summit (perhaps front of mind is whether or not the US senate climate bill will be passed before Copenhagen despite the current Republican boycott), here at 1E, we are in agreement that what is perhaps more pertinent is the road from Copenhagen – so, the road that leads us to COP16 in Mexico. COP15 will last a fortnight and we must be realistic about what we hope it will achieve. At worst, nothing will happen. At best, we will have a starting point; a set of aspirations or ‘opt in’ suggested guidelines to follow. What we, as an IT industry, won’t have are regulations, legislation or metrics...and that’s precisely what we need. Take for example the data center – in particular, a single server. With no clear directives coming from UK government on green datacenter strategies, the EPA still finalizing its Energy Star for Servers ratings and the EU Data Center Code of Conduct still being a voluntary ‘opt in’ set of guidelines a year since its unveiling, it seems that organizations are lacking the direction that they are looking for in terms of green IT strategy and the road to low carbon business. What’s true is that COP15 is not a panacea. The wider issue of climate change (and IT’s involvement in addressing this) needs more than a ‘silver bullet’ solution and COP15 is not it. What we must remember is that the summit is, over and above anything else, a political meeting. The best we can hope is that this meeting of political minds gives us i) a set of common standards, ii) agreement from the developed world in terms of how much funding it will invest in helping the developing world cut emissions and tackle climate change and iii) re-assessment by the United States (responsible for 36.1% of the 1990 emission levels) of its current non membership of the Kyoto Protocol. Only then will we be able to lobby our respective governments to drive regulations, pass legislations and accelerate the rollout of clean technologies. So is IT a More Likely Agenda Item for COP16 in Mexico? We hope not. We have to wait and see Copehnagen is a mere 33 days away and while everyone is looking at the road to the summit (perhaps front of mind is whether or not the US senate climate bill will be passed before Copenhagen despite the current Republican boycott), here at 1E, we are in agreement that what is perhaps more pertinent is the road from Copenhagen – so, the road that leads us to COP16 in Mexico. COP15 will last a fortnight and we must be realistic about what we hope it will achieve. At worst, nothing will happen. At best, we will have a starting point; a set of aspirations or ‘opt in’ suggested guidelines to follow.
What we, as an IT industry, won’t have are regulations, legislation or metrics…and that’s precisely what we need. Take for example the data center – in particular, a single server. With no clear directives coming from UK government on green datacenter strategies, the EPA still finalizing its Energy Star for Servers ratings and the EU Data Center Code of Conduct still being a voluntary ‘opt in’ set of guidelines a year since its unveiling, it seems that organizations are lacking the direction that they are looking for in terms of green IT strategy and the road to low carbon business.

What’s true is that COP15 is not a panacea. The wider issue of climate change (and IT’s involvement in addressing this) needs more than a ‘silver bullet’ solution and COP15 is not it. What we must remember is that the summit is, over and above anything else, a political meeting. The best we can hope is that this meeting of political minds gives us i) a set of common standards, ii) agreement from the developed world in terms of how much funding it will invest in helping the developing world cut emissions and tackle climate change and iii) re-assessment by the United States (responsible for 36.1% of the 1990 emission levels) of its current non membership of the Kyoto Protocol. Only then will we be able to lobby our respective governments to drive regulations, pass legislations and accelerate the rollout of clean technologies.

So is IT a More Likely Agenda Item for COP16 in Mexico? We hope not. We have to wait and see

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