Brussels, 12/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 9 October, the European Commission adopted a recommendation calling on the European information and communication technology (ICT) sector to adopt practical measures to improve its energy efficiency. This is the result of a public consultation which concluded in September 2009 and which confirmed that the sector should be based on a coordinated approach to improve its energy and environmental performance, and that common decisions must be taken to achieve fixed objectives. "Making better use of innovative ICT solutions will help us meet Europe's objectives of a low-carbon economy. The ICT sector can show the way to a more sustainable, environmentally-friendly growth and give a boost to green jobs in Europe", said Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for the Information Society and Media, in a press release.
The energy consumption of ICT equipment and services currently represents 8% of all electricity consumed within the EU and 2% of its carbon emissions. A rational use of ICT in high energy-consuming sectors such as building, transport and logistics would help to reduce total carbon emissions by 15% within 10 years, says the Commission. In order to meet these objectives, it calls on the ICT sector to adopt common methodologies to measure energy consumption and carbon emissions by 2010, to provide more reliable data in order to set ambitious sectorial objectives by 2011. These should exceed European objectives for 2020 by 2015. The Commission also calls on the member states to use ICT-based solutions to improve energy efficiency, adopting intelligent electricity networks and smart meters which can help to increase efficiency and production control and distribution and consumption of energy. They have until the end of 2010 to adopt common specifications on smart meters, in order to provide households with better information and to help them manage their energy consumption. A timetable for the deployment of these smart meters is to be adopted by no later than the end of 2012. Businesses will also have to make their share of the efforts. If 20% of business trips, for example, were replaced by video conferences, 22 million tonnes of CO2 emissions could be saved every year. Furthermore, the deployment of broadband networks allowing increased use of online public services and applications would help to save at least 1% to 2% of the world's energy consumption by 2020, the Commission stressed. (I.L./transl.fl)