Green stimulus

Could ICTs deliver both an economic stimulus and a greener future?

8 October, 2009

By Iain Morris, EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit)

Could ICTs deliver both an economic stimulus and a greener future? If so, you've got two compelling reasons why governments and private investors should look to the technology sector this year.

We've all heard plenty about the effect of rising mobile-phone penetration on GDP, and new studies suggest that rising broadband penetration gives an even bigger boost to productivity. If ICT availability also means businesses and consumers will adopt services like telepresence, which can reduce carbon emissions by cutting out travel, then who could resist?

It's not quite so simple. Mexico's authorities have suggested it is rising GDP that leads to greater ICT penetration - and not the other way round. Japan's NTT has questioned whether an ICT sector building more data centres by the day can ever call itself green.

Refreshingly, the believers appear to be in the ascendant at this year's ITU Telecom World show. Government and regulatory representatives from Europe and Asia have this week spoken optimistically about the long-term economic and social benefits of investing in broadband networks. Telcos have also shown that running a greener business can make sense commercially - not only by reducing costs but also by projecting a better image to customers.

That leaves the main disagreement over the 'how', not the 'if'. Should the state play a major role in funding a nationwide broadband deployment? This seems unlikely to ever happen in some developed countries. Yet investors often aren't convinced the NGA business case makes sense. And the ICT sector needs to establish ways of working with other industries to make a real difference environmentally. Hopefully, players can find some common ground this week. Perhaps they can sway the doubters while they're at it.