Nigerian ICT and climate change

Hamzat Bala Lawal in AllAfrica.com via the Daily Trust (Nigeria): Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays major roles in climate change mitigation and adaptation. This is increasingly being recognized within the climate change technology transfer negotiations because according to the World Development Report 2010, the use of ICT is predicted to reduce total greenhouse gases by 15 per cent by 2020.

Beyond climate change mitigation, ICT has a prominent role to play in realizing Nigeria's Vision 2020 mandate of building a large, diversified, sustainable and competitive economy that harnesses the energies and talents of its people and guarantee high standard of living and quality of life for its citizens. The convergence between climate change mitigation and meeting growth targets is particularly important to Nigeria.

Overtime, the impact of ICT on sustainable development has often been underestimated by policy makers. The importance of this sector can be felt in the construction of ICT enabled energy efficient buildings and electric appliances, manufacturing, logistics and power grids. Others include ICT enabled business models, markets and lifestyles. It plays essential roles in monitoring, modeling, administration and dissemination of climate change information and technology.

It has other indirect positive impact on the environment, for instance, through its role in increasing general per capita wealth through productivity, GDP growth and boosting the social well being of the populace. It also helps in addressing the poverty situation in the country. It is clear that ICTs, as both general purpose and specific technologies, are necessary in order to monitor, model, administrate and disseminate climate change activities….