ICTs and Climate Change Mitigation in Emerging Economies

This paper, produced as part of the University of Manchester's "Climate Change, Innovation and ICTs [information and communication technologies]" research project, discusses needs and opportunities for ICT-enabled climate change mitigation in emerging economies. It was written against the backdrop of challenges to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally, increases of emissions in rapidly growing emerging economies, and the need for technological solutions for jumping ahead to incorporating low-carbon planning and design for development . It demonstrates how ICT-enabled climate change mitigation could help pave the way for low-carbon development pathways in the world's developing countries.

Following an introduction to the challenge of climate change mitigation in emerging economies, the document describes the critical role that ICTs can play in mitigating climate change in these economies and lists some key opportunity areas. A number of main sectors with significant ICT-enabled carbon reduction opportunities can be identified across all economies which include energy generation, urban transportation and buildings, manufacturing, and international trade. Examples include industrial policies to develop ICT-based electrical vehicle (EV) transportation networks, and urban planning solutions incorporating geographic information systems (GIS), e-governance capacity, and centralised information and communication hubs.

According to the paper, the use of remote sensing applications complemented by ground data gathered on location and geolocation information, including field data collection via mobile technologies, is an established and effective means of monitoring land-use change and forestry emissions. The authors also indicate that, by facilitating information gathering and dissemination, ICTs can encourage better land use planning and contribute to capacity building including efforts to increase public awareness of critical environmental issues, the development of professional staff, involvement of and collaboration among relevant stakeholders, and the integration of environmental content into education and policy enforcement.

"ICT applications can also contribute to empowering groups and supporting them in efforts around environmental conservation. For instance, Amazon Indians in South America combine use of ICT solutions like Google Earth and Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping, with traditional knowledge of the rainforest to help detect illegal activities and thus fight deforestation.

While the opportunities for ICT-enabled carbon reductions in emerging economies are compelling, major barriers to widespread commercial deployment of these solutions remain. Such barriers, discussed in section 3, include the lack of awareness of technological developments, and the limited or uncertain suitability of these technologies. In many emerging economies there is no favourable regulatory and political environment incentivising necessary investments and research. Small and medium-sized enterprises, the main users of low-carbon technologies in these countries, also face limited access to capital and limited capacity and skills to adopt low-carbon technologies.

In conclusion, section 4 outlines key recommendations for governments in emerging economies and large businesses leading on low-carbon technologies. The support of both stakeholders will be crucial to enable a transition to low-carbon development. Governments will need to create an enabling policy and market environment to encourage necessary investments and research. Big businesses will need to make technology available to small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging economies, and to help build innovation capacity in these countries."