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IVORY TOWER
The internet and sustainability The view from China
Several recent studies have sugges- Although the reality is that much of the dam-
ted the internet and digital communi- age to date is the legacy of the developed
cations could have a major impact in western countries, developing countries like
reducing CO2. One such study China and India often come in for criticism as
released in April by Dr Yuji Inoue, regards their carbon output, and not without
president of the Japanese Telecomm- reason.
unications Technology Committee, Much of the economic growth in China has
claimed that Japan could reach 90% been driven by heavy industry, says Jerry Li
of its Kyoto targets strictly through (MSc 99), an electronic engineer and VP for
the application of ICT. the Asia Pacific region with Hitachi’s metals
In his role as Minister for Comm- division. “These are industries of low eco-
unications, Energy and Natural Res- nomic value, yet high energy consumption,
ources, Eamon Ryan TD’s (BComm unlike, for example, software and the finan-
84) portfolio covers both energy cial services industries.”
security and ICT. When we spoke, Another major contributor is China’s mas-
he had just returned from a confer-
Minister Eamon Ryan TD (BComm 84)
sive consumption of coal, which still accounts
ence in Japan on this very theme of for some 70% of energy use in this vast coun-
using the internet to tackle climate its competitors are building huge try. “Not only does China use much more
change. data centres that are located specif- coal, but unlike Europe or Japan, it is coal
“We are moving towards an inter- ically to take advantage of hydro and which has not been processed, or what we
net of things as well as people,” he other low-cost energy. Here again call desulpherised,” says Li.
says. “It will be a network of net- we see the convergence of economic China’s dark skyline during the Olympic
works in many ways, connecting imperatives for business and energy Games last month was testimony to this use
material devices to each other, from security. of dirty coal, but there is growing awareness
economic information to services These data centres will be the among the Chinese of climate change and
and efficient energy management.” backbone of the new cloud-comput- what needs to done. “If you’re talking about
Some of the benefits to the envi- ing revolution predicted by many of awareness, no question that has grown. If
ronment of moving towards a digit- the technorati — where all key data you’re talking about implementation, that’s
ally traded economy are apparent, and information will be stored another story,” says Li.
such as cuts in commuting times remotely in the ‘cloud’ of the inter- “There are a lot of new policies coming in,
and air travel, but Minister Ryan is net, rather than on the traditional there are new energy-saving laws and new
the first to recognise that it raises desktop computer and in-house technologies being developed, so China is
challenges also. servers. “In the future, rather than moving in the right direction. But the problem
“The new data centres that are the PC on our desks, we will be using is always how you implement it in a country of
required to support these industries a light and mobile access device, this size.
eat up huge amounts of electricity. So which we can take with us anywhere, “In general there is increasing awareness
it’s not just about developing renew- and which will connect remotely to here of the critical nature of the problem, that
ables but also about developing all the information we require,” says the Government, industry and the people
energy efficiencies, and this is where Minister Ryan. have to do something about it. There’s
new technologies can come in. As we build towards a sustainable enough evidence now that China is running
“The technology is changing so future, there will be opportunities as out of energy, yet it wants to sustain its eco-
fast. If you take the Japanese next- well as challenges. The Minister nomic development. There are only a few
generation networks, they’re looking believes our small modern economy things you can do in this case. You have to
at energy efficiency gains of the and well-educated digitally savvy develop new sources of energy, you have to
scale of one hundredth the energy young people could offer such use energy more efficiently, and you have to
being used in new switching technol- opportunities to the Irish economy. change lifestyles.”
ogy in five years’ time. That’s a radi- “Our small size means we won’t be Li says there is a growing number of
cal change.” able to compete with some of the domestic and overseas companies investing
In June, the New York Times ran emerging economies in the area of in the development of renewable energy and
an article on the rapidly rising ICT manufacturing, but we are well clean technologies in China. His own comp-
demand for engineers who could placed to compete with anyone when any, Hitachi, is one of those developing green
reduce the power and cooling it comes to the trialling and develop- technologies. “I work with Hitachi’s metals
requirements of the aforementioned ing of new clean technologies and division, producing energy-efficient materials
data centres. The likes of Google and digital services.” for use in transformers for producing
26 UCD BUSINESS CONNECTIONS
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