The UN should raise IT and communications technologies (ICTs) to the top of the agenda at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December, according to incoming Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg.

 

Vestberg said at the Broadband World Forum this week that the tech sector - if properly leveraged - was capable of reducing global CO2 emissions 15% by 2020.

 

“For too long the need for CO2 reductions has been seen as a trade-off between economic development and care for the planet. This does not have to be the case,” he said.

 

But if the world is to meet its target of 50%-80% emission cuts by 2050, governments need to stop pursuing incremental changes in favor of radical infrastructure projects, he added.

 

As the “most energy-efficient infrastructure ever created,” broadband will provide a key role in stimulating the economy during the evolution, Vestberg said.

 

Broadband investments could “reinforce several different low-carbon solutions such as virtual meetings, smart grids, m-governance, m-health, e-learning, e-paper, and so on. Even though these services might look very different from a user perspective, they all rely on the same underlying infrastructure.

 

“As representatives of the ICT sector, Ericsson and our industry peers have the task to bring this message home to our governments and politicians,” he said.

 

Heads of state, government officials and NGOs will meet in Copenhagen in December in an attempt to forge a global agreement on reducing carbon emissions.