Low carbon computing: a view to 2050 and beyond

• Paul Anderson, and others
• Joint Information Systems Committee

Read the full text

30 November 2009The UK is the first country in the world to introduce a legally binding framework for tackling climate change and the implications of this are likely to be far reaching for the public sector. Over the coming years targets will be set, carbon emission budgets agreed and strategies and plans announced: all with the overall goal of cutting the UK's emissions by 80% of 1990 levels, by 2050. What will this mean for the ICT sector, and in particular for those responsible for information services in higher and further education?

The report explains that it is likely that data-intensive sectors such as tertiary education will probably find themselves facing even harsher targets than other sectors and argues that the impetus will fall not only on reducing demand but also on generating supply. In summary, the report covers:

• best practice measures and standards for metrics (section 3)
• short term 'quick fixes' based on simple staff actions and/or low cost investment (section 4)
• longer term solutions that either represent a more costly investment, or are based on more experimental technologies (section 4)
• discussion of the factors that are likely to affect how these technologies develop in the future 
• a first attempt at a Low Carbon ICT Roadmap that puts technology developments into a framework that also takes into account what is currently known about the targets associated with the Climate Change Act (section 6)
• a discussion of the factors and technologies that are likely to feature in the long-term plans and decisions that senior managers in tertiary education will need to make (section 5).

Authors: Paul Anderson, Gaynor Backhouse, Daniel Curtis, Simon Redding, David Wallom