ENERGY EFFICIENCY : TECH COMPANIES PLEDGE TO REDUCE CARBON FOOTPRINT.

A group of leading European information and communication technology (ICT) companies met, on 11 December 2008, Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding to give her an update on their implementation of a June 2008 plan to use ICT to reduce energy use. The companies, British Telecom, Cisco, Dell, Deutsche Telekom, Hewlett-Packard and Intel, belong to the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI). The June 2008 Smart 2020 report', commissioned by GeSI and carried out by McKinsey consultants, argues that transforming technology use could cut annual anthropogenic global emissions by 15% by 2020. This would deliver global energy efficiency savings of over 500 billion.

The report also notes that the ICT sector's own footprint, currently at 2% of global emissions, will almost double by 2020. GeSI argues that the sector's own emissions do allow for monitoring and maximising energy efficiency both within and outside its own sector, leading to CO2 emission cuts up to five times as...