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 The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, which ran from December 3 to 14 this year, has just finished and looks set to send a clear and unambiguous message to the developed world: reduce your carbon footprint now before it is too late.
The conference culminated in the adoption of the Bali roadmap, which charts the course for a new negotiating process to be concluded by 2009 that will ultimately lead to a post-2012 international agreement on climate change. According to the most stringent scenario outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global average surface temperature can still be limited to an increase of two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level. Staying within this limit means a reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions of at least 50% below the 1990 level by 2050.
Currently, all the media attention is focused on the aviation and transportation sector as the villains. However, IT datacenters, and computers in general, waste a significant amount of energy every day. If rumours from the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group (PRSEG) are right, post-2012 the EU Emissions Trading Scheme will be extended, and that this extension will inevitably affect more organizations than the current scheme. One possible approach will be for a carbon emissions cap on organizations, which will force them to look at their energy consumption. IT can offer solutions that will enable a reduction in energy use.
The impact that IT computing resources contribute to the overall organizational energy consumption needs to be addressed before legislation is introduced, forcing organizations to report on and then reduce their energy consumption, or face penalty charges.
IT departments can take the lead within organizations, and create a new role for themselves in the process, by enabling organizations to be proactive in reducing energy consumption, and hence reduce their carbon footprint.
Via CBR
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