Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and ... - ITU

Figure 3. Relation between ICTs and climate change adaptation.
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Source: Bueti, C. (ITU), adapted from Ospina and Heeks (2011)
The case of Ghana provides valuable examples of the ways in which ICTs and climate change interact at
these different levels, as reflected in Table 8.
Table 8. Linkages between ICTs & climate change adaptation in Ghana.
ICTs & climate change in Ghana: International level
At the international level, ICTs and climate change strategies gained significant momentum at the 2011 United
Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) held in Durban. At the event, a new Coalition on ICTs and Climate
Change coordinated a series of side events aimed at raising awareness on the use of these tools as part of
mitigation and adaptation strategies, highlighting the importance of coordinating actions among diverse
stakeholders working in the field. Ghana’s government is an active participant of the Coalition, joining efforts with
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), the UNFCCC
Secretariat, the UN Global Compact, TechAmerica, and high-level representatives from the governments of South
Africa and Egypt.
To provide further impetus to the opportunities created by ICT in facilitating adaptation to climate change, ITU’s
Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) has set up a new ‘Question’ (Q23) in its Study Group 5 entitled
“Using ICTs to enable countries to adapt to climate change”. This Question seeks to identify tools, information
sources and technologies relevant to climate change adaptation, and to make this information available to local
communities through the use of the internet, telecommunication networks and devices such as smart phones.
Question 23 also looks at an important dimension of adaptation concerning ICTs’ resilience to the effects of climate
change.
The efforts conducted by ITU at the international level have also looked at the potential of ICT based systems for
monitoring weather and the environment worldwide. ITU conducted a survey on existing technologies and
standards used by different countries in adaptation to climate change, which suggested that, while many countries
have used diverse ICT technologies and tools for adaptation, best practices are not shared on a regular basis, and
knowledge transfer and sharing is often lacking or fragmented. In response to those results, an ITU-T
recommendation is being drafted. The first part aims at providing best practices for countries to use ICT to more
effectively adapt to the effects of climate change. The second is focused on adapting the ICT sector and
infrastructure to the impacts of climate change. This Recommendation will be a step towards developing an ‘ICT
and Climate Change Web Portal’ to provide ITU Member States and Sector Members with consolidated first-hand
information on existing ICT technologies that can assist them in the implementation of cost effective planning and
information sharing in this field.