The transformational potential of newinformation and communication technologies (ICTs) was ondisplay in Paris at the Twenty-First Conference of theParties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Conventionon Climate Change. ICTs, including the Internet, mobilephones, geographic information systems (GIS), satelliteimaging, remote sensing, and data analytics, could reduceyearly global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) 20 percentby 2030, thus holding them at their 2015 level. Moreover,ICT emissions are expected to decrease to 1.97 percent ofthe global total by 2030, from 2.3 percent in 2020, whileemission reductions attributable to ICT will be nearly 10times greater than those of the ICT sector. ICTs are alsocritical for climate change adaptation, providing vitaltools for all phases of the disaster risk management cycle.Although the opportunities for ICTs to support the climatechange agenda are enormous, much work remains in order torealize them. Governments of developing countries must befurther encouraged to include ICTs in their national climatechange policies. And the international development communitywill have to make significant efforts, particularly inlow-income countries, to develop ICT infrastructure as wellas the institutional capacities and skills to implement andsustain these solutions.
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