Continuing its commitment with green policy, Telefónica supported the ITU declaration on green ICTs during the last 7th ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change held in Montreal, Canada.
Silvia Guzmán Araña, Director of Sustainability and Corporate Reputation of Telefónica, explained that “the company’s signing of the Declaration is part of its green ICT strategy, designed by the Office of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency to encourage eco-efficiency internally, in order to help create a low carbon economy with products and services that bring benefits to other sectors, as well as measurable impacts which are comparable with uniform standards for the entire industry”.
The “Montreal Declaration”, which was signed by more than 170 participants at the event, is a clear call for global leaders, public sector officials, ICT and environmental experts and representatives from international organizations, that will gather at the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP18-CMP8) and the 2012 ITU World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-12), to identify and agree on key priorities to strengthen the green ICT agenda. Participants aim to enhance their capacity to monitor, mitigate and adapt to climate change, boost energy efficiency and recycling and emphasize the role of new technologies as enablers of sustainable economic development. The document even proposes some ways forward on how to reach these goals.
The text focuses on seven key areas such as:
- Environmental protection,
- Monitoring through smart metering,
- Adaptation and response to natural disasters,
- Mitigation through regulatory support and standardization
- Awareness-raising and capacity building,
- Intelligent waste management and recycling,
- And finally, partnerships for environmental sustainability.
You can have a look at the whole declaration here.
In regards to the EU green policy, the programme of the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union included “a green Europe” as one of its four fundamental priorities. In June 2011, the European Commission issued a proposal for a directive on energy efficiency, and since 1 January, the Danish Presidency has been working to make this Directive more ambitious. The Presidency hopes that the Council and the European Parliament will reach an agreement on the Energy Efficiency Directive by the end of June.
