Telefónica Public Policy & Telefónica España Regulatory teams
Coinciding with the United Nations’ celebration of the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All” , the ITU and Telefónica are announcing two initiatives for coming up with innovative uses of ICT to help meet the UN’s goal: the first Green ICT Hackathon, i.e. a marathon of green ICT development, that will be held on the 28th and 29th of February in Barcelona, and the second edition of the Green ICT Application Challenge, for which ideas may be submitted to promote sustainable use of energy from now until the 13th of April 2012.
For the ITU secretary general, Hamadoun Touré, “sustainable energy for all is crucial to the future of modern civilization. The ITU is committed to discovering ICT applications based on new ways of thinking; suitable ideas for change that we need in order to achieve a sustainable future”.
For his part, Alberto Andreu Pinillos, Chief Reputation & Sustainability Officer of Telefónica, believes that “these initiatives have a dual goal: to assist developers with bright ideas and to promote green ICT applications to achieve greater energy efficiency and sustainable development”. The company is launching these activities as part of the work of the Office of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and in collaboration with Movistar Spain and BlueVia, the multinational global platform for developers.
GREEN ICT HACKATHON: Sign up now here.
This “marathon of hackers” will be held in Barcelona on the 28th and 29th of February 2012 coinciding with the Mobile World Congress. It is an opportunity for developers around the world to compete in the development of an ICT application whose raison d’être is sustainable energy.
After two days of frenetic competition, the awards ceremony will take place on the 29th of February in which the winning competitors will receive 3,000 and 2,000 dollars in cash respectively.
The Green ICT Hackathon, whose objective is to promote the subsequent development of the most promising applications, also has the support of Nokia, Telefónica’s strategic partner for carrying out joint actions in the area of sustainability.
GREEN ICT APPLICATION CHALLENGE: Submit your preliminary plan here.
Participants in this second edition of the competition must submit a detailed document explaining how their ideas can help contribute to the objective of “Sustainable Energy for all” through an ICT solution.
Participants must submit their projects between the 1st of February and the 13th of April 2012. The winner will receive 3,000 dollars at an awards ceremony that will be held at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Río +20) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June of 2012
The world economy is experiencing a necessary shift towards renewable energy and sustainable energy production. As an example, the EU, whose current Danish Presidency has indicated in its programme, ‘Europe at work’, that it will work to ensure that the EU has a strong voice at the Rio+20 Summit, will strive to secure the adoption of initiatives for promoting energy efficiency and promote a well-functioning internal market for energy through expansion of the European energy infrastructure amongst other measures (see our post of 12 January).
Last but not least, it is important to recall that ICTs play a key role in the transformation of energy distribution, with technologies such as smart grids, smart metering, intelligent billing and electro-mobility. This allows personal control over the amount of energy that we consume.
