Working Group on Climate Change (WG-CC)

 

Chaired by Hans Vestberg, President & CEO, Ericsson

The Broadband Bridge: Linking ICT with Climate Action

A report from the Broadband Commission Working Group on Climate Change Learn more

Background

The Broadband Commission for Digital Development was launched by Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the ITU, and Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, in May 2010 in response to the call by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to step up UN efforts to help accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Its main aim is to highlight the importance of broadband in helping boost achievement of the MDGs. It unites senior policy-makers and top executives from the telecommunication industry in a bid to extend the benefits of high-speed Internet to people around the world. To focus the work of this influential set of leaders, the Commission established eight Working Groups on various key thematic areas.

Objectives

The Working Group aims to:

• Establish a global leadership platform for creating awareness on the relation between broadband and climate change in the global climate policy work, including recommendations for governments;
  
• Link innovation in the ICT industry to the implementation of national and regional broadband plans and accelerating the uptake of transformative low-carbon solutions, in areas such as transportation, utilities, communication or health.
  
• Support activities to leverage Broadband and ICT on the global climate agenda, partnering with other organizations and forums that already have this focus.

Activities

The group, chaired by Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson, was launched in Barcelona (Spain) on 16 February 2011. The group has held three meetings via teleconference on 31 March, 30 May 2011 and 04 October.

Outcomes

Following on from members active participation at COP17 in Durban late 2011, the WG is preparing a report on Broadband and Climate Change with recommendations for how broadband investments can be leveraged from a climate perspective. This report will include an analysis of our present situation, government leadership, involvement by the private sector and other stakeholders, as well as a road map and recommendations for further action. The report will be made available online by late February 2012.

Membership

WG-CC comprises the following members, including 13 Commissioners and 2 external members:

 

	Commissioner	Organization
1	Hans Vestberg (chairman)	Ericsson
2	Ali M. Abbasov	Minister of ICTs Azerbajian
3	Ben Verwaayen	Alcatel Lucent
4	Bruno Lanvin	INSEAD
5	Esteban Pacha	IMSO
6	Hamadoun Toure	ITU
7	Helen Clark	UNDP
8	Jeffrey Sachs	Earth Institute
9	Klaus M. Leisinger	Novartis
10	Orlando Ayala	Microsoft
11	Paul S. Otellini	Intel
12	Sun Yafang	Huawei
13	Sunil Mittal	Bharti
	Invited members
1	Luis Neves	GeSI
2	Veena Rawat	RIM