IDC has ranked Japan, with a score of 16, as the top-tier country with the greatest potential to reduce greenhouse gases by using information and communications technologies (ICT). The ICT Sustainability Index ranks the capability of the G20 nations to use ICT to reduce their CO2 emissions.
United States followed Japan with a score of 20, and the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Brazil all earned a score of 21.
The study shows how seventeen technologies can reduce almost 5.8 billion tons (GT) of CO2 emissions in four major economic sectors -- energy generation and distribution, transport, industry and building by 2020. The technologies selected were based on three criteria. They must provide real benefits within three years, support significant processing on a network and be discrete independent technologies, IDC said.
The estimate represents the potential reduction in greenhouse gases for just the G20 nations, which account for more than seventy percent of the world's gross domestic product and the world's carbon emissions, said IDC.
Japan is projected to achieve a CO2e reduction of 318.5 million tons annually by 2020. For the G20 as a whole to achieve a 25 percent reduction in this timeframe, Japan will need a 35 percent (111.5 million tons) further reduction to 430.0 million tons, IDC said.
In Japan, transport-related sources is the largest share of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) reduction potential (30 percent), slightly more than the equivalent share for all G20 countries (29 percent). The next largest reduction potential in Japan is for power and buildings, at 27 percent and 25 percent respectively.
The research also shows that China has the biggest opportunity to save almost 200 million tons of CO2 by implementing ICT technologies in the energy generation and distribution sector, while the U.S. has the largest potential to reduce its 2020 CO2 emissions by more than 500 million tons in the transport sector.
Other findings indicate that ICT-based solutions for buildings provide as much CO2 savings as the energy and transport sectors with energy management systems and intelligent building designs offering the biggest savings, nearly 12 percent of all G20 energy savings, according to IDC.
Click here for an on-demand replay of IDC's press conference in Copenhagen.
