European Commission backs green tech

By SmartPlanet on 16 May 2008, 1:07pm

The European Commission (EC) is backing the use of technology to cut carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency across Europe's economy. It is promoting the intelligent use of tech to improve efficiency in buildings, lighting and power grids in order to make significant inroads into reducing Europe's carbon footprint.

The Commission wants the IT industry to play a leading role by reducing its own carbon dioxide output but also by developing technologies that would help other industries do the same. This comes off the back of the Green IT Strategy to do largely the same thing, but in the UK.

The Commission feels three areas should be focused on in this work: energy generation and distribution; monitoring of energy consumption in buildings; and moving to more energy-efficient 'intelligent' lighting. Wide use of advanced technology, such as a computer server which uses the same amount of energy as a standard lightbulb, could save up to 70 per cent in energy.

Commissioner for information society and media, Viviane Reding, said the move to a high-growth, low-carbon economy is essential to achieve European efficiency goals by 2020. She said it would be a "win-win situation" as the tech would promote European competitiveness, as well as fight climate change.

It is predicted the EU's energy consumption will rise by as much as 25 per cent by 2012 if no action is taken. The IT sector currently accounts for two per cent of global CO2 emissions.