SMART 2010/0079, includes open data
In 2008, the European Union set targets to reduce emissions by 20% compared to 1990 levels and to improve energy efficiency by 20%, by 2020. To help achieve these targets, the European Commission (EC) is promoting the role of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) in improving energy efficiency. Energy use by ICT equipment and services represents about 8% of electrical power and 2% of carbon emissions in the EU (Bio Intelligence Service 2008) and ICT-enabled improvements in buildings and construction, transport logistics and energy end-use could save about 15% of total carbon emissions by 2020 (GeSI 2008). However, there are multiple initiatives ongoing worldwide to provide the tools (methodologies, metrics and data-sets) to measure and report Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and energy end-use, and there is no agreed framework to measure the performance of the ICT sector. In 2009, the EC recommended that the ICT sector should implement common methodologies to measure its environmental performance by the end of 2011 (EC 2009). This includes the energy use and GHG emissions of production processes, distribution, use and disposal of ICT products and the delivery of ICT services. The EC Information Society and Media Directorate-General appointed Carbon Trust Advisory to produce a database of methodologies and metrics that are in use or currently under development, with particular reference to the ICT sector. This homogeneous source of knowledge will provide policy makers with the knowledge of „what is possible‟ to determine objectives, design programmes, implement policies and compare and evaluate results across different policies and programmes