In December of 1995, a group of countries came together under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to acknowledge and combat the issue of global warming at the COP1 in Berlin. Sixteen years later, the conference continued in Durban, South Africa, where official representatives, businesses and international actors met to discuss ideas and potential solutions to the climate change crisis. The conference has been held throughout Europe and Asia, but “many African countries don't produce the amount of emissions into the environment, yet they are the ones being affected by them” says Bilel Jamoussi, Chief of the Study Groups Department at the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau in Geneva. BikyaMasr.com sat down with Jamoussi to talk about the conference and its potential for climate change discussion. From their website ITU.int, and with help from Jamoussi, “ITU (International Telecommunications Union), together with a coalition of industry partners, will be working to convince delegates at the UN COP 17 climate change conference harness the power of information and communication technology (ICT) to promote mitigation and adaptation to climate change; to promote ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) as the 21st century's most valuable problem solving tools.” BM: What is the mission statement and goals of ITU, including the ITU-T Study groups. What are ICTs? Jamoussi: The ITU develops international standards, between governments and private sectors. Our focus is to apply ICTs to reduce carbon emissions. The case studies were done in Ghana. Our first report, we focused on how Ghana is using the ICTs in reducing their carbon footprint. We implemented new technology for television broadcast, digital versus analog, and other ways to save power, such as the sharing of mobile towers. Our second report was looking at how Ghana used the ICTs to adapt to climate change. Things like remote staff training, using ICTs to better communicate with cocoa optimizing, a local market. We also want to cut down on e-waste. Before NGN's (Next Generation Networks) everything was on its own network: mobile lines on one, televeison on another, then internet. By bringing it all to one, this has a significant impact on the power and energy used. The new technology is more energy efficient. Then, the e-waste program focuses on creating universal power cords, or chargers, this is a big goal for our 2013 plans. Companies and governments phase out old chargers and the new chargers will be detachable chords for charging and synchronizing. This could be huge for saving millions and recycling. BM: What if the broadband were to go out? If everything is on one line, if you will, then wouldn't everything be lost? Jamoussi: No, because the difference is in operating on a switch level versus a fiber optic cable. If one area goes down, the information can be rerouted and secured. Also, there is more packaging so the problem can be fixed easier. BM: What topics are you most excited, or passionate about? Anything in particular you hope makes tremendous head way? Jamoussi: To Adopt ICTs as an enabler to reduce the footprint and green house gases. Using ICTs to reduce other sectors, and adaptation- the fact is that there are many countries that aren't contributing to the mass amounts of CO2 and they shouldn't be hindered by other countries that do emit ample amounts of those gases. I hope the e-waste program, the universal chord, will influence others. BM: So what can the rest of the world, those specifically actively involved with clime change, expect to see from the conference? Any new technologies or protocols? How can more people become involved in reducing CO2 emissions, whether in response to the conference or in general? Jamoussi: The most important thing (we hope to do from the conference) is to be able to compare apples to apples; that is what we are trying to do by creating an international standard. That way people can see the immediate impact, and able to adopt new means of combating climate change. BM: I read an article about a new cable to be launched connecting Africa to South America, up to North America, to the EU. How do you feel on that & the communication it is supposed to open up? Jamoussi: Fantastic! Because the cable is broadband, it can help provide services like video conferences which will save people from traveling, which will help them but also the environment. This can only be done with broadband, in fact much intelligence is done through broadband it is quite significant with connectivity. BM: Are there any other ideas that you and the team are working on for the near future? Jamoussi: We have an idea. We want to use new technology on current submarines to monitor climate change in the water. This will allow us to gather information across the globe. We would use a communication cable, and the cable would be put at different points around the world to monitor global change. UNESCO is potentially interested and the developments of such plans continue everyday. With case studies, new technologies, and already potential new plans for future endeavors, ITU seems to be on the right track for working on a global level to finding new technologies to reduce global climate change. Whether is it attending conference like COP17, or working with businesses and committees, ITU is making headway; such strategies with other activists will only help the future of the human kind and our relationship with planet Earth. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/cvlTr Tags: Bilal Jamoussi, Climate Change, COP-17, Durban Section: Environment, Going Green
