The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during the virtual Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), from 2 to 17 November 2020. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the event, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> MODERATOR: I think now we have all of the speakers.
Chineyenwa, can you test your mic and video?
>> CHINEYENWA OKONO ONU: Yes, can you hear me? Hi.
>> MODERATOR: Yes, yes, we can hear you, that's fine.
>> This is the IGF host speaking again.
Welcome to the webinar. Please be informed that this session is recorded and hosted under the Code of Conduct of IGF and United Nations Rules and Regulations. Please also be informed that the chat is for chat only, and the Q&A feature shall be used to ask questions. Have a very successful session, thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you, Viktor, noted.
Hello. I will go ahead and begin with the session. So thank you for joining us for the Workshop Number 273, Enhancing Sustainable Computing, Production and Consumption.
My name is I'm Ece Vural, I’m working at Habitat Association as International Relations Department Manager, and I will be moderating the session today.
I would like to first start off with presenting our agenda. So I will be introducing our panelists and then provide a brief session introduction, and then we will move on to covering policy questions with our speakers. And at the end, we are going to have time for Q&A.
So I want to start with Mohammad Atif Aleem. He is working as a business analyst at Tata Consultancy Services. And he is also USFIG's Regional Engagement Director for Asia-Pacific.
Jaewon Son, she is working as an advisor in Green Tech Alliance, and also as capacity building lead at Youth for IG.
Chineyenwa Okono Onu, she is a social entrepreneur. She is the founder and managing director Waste or Create Hub.
And Dr. Daniel Dasig is a telecom company executive, also a professor ad De La Salle University and serving in Board of Directors at Internet Society of Philippines.
So I want to provide a brief description of our session. So reports and analysis show us that in the production have serious consequences on different levels such as environmental, economic and societal.
And growing conscious digital consumers have been increasing demand for more advanced computing ways. And to satisfy such requirements of sustainable computing, production, and consumption, they have to undo the effects of climate change. And degradation of environment is vital subject of discussion.
So our panelists today will be sharing their experiences in various fields and where these changes were innovatable and vital.
So the issues we will be covering will be around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9 and 12, which are focusing as a call to build a resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Sustainable consumption and production, promoting resource and energy efficiency and infrastructure and providing access to basic services, green and decent jobs and better quality of life for all.
So, these SDGs, they play vital role in addressing sustainable development issues without leaving anyone behind. And the trends in emerging technologies for innovation and industrialization are expected to improve communities without compromising the environment.
And looking into the demographics, many developing countries still lack in the level innovation index based on their innovation performance. So therefore, engineers, scientists of the technical community, government, academia, Civil Society, basically various sectors and various backgrounds and other interested parties, they should be linked together as policy makers and policy takers to map these issues and also develop policies fostering efficiently sustainable computing, production, and consumption.
Therefore, during this session, we are aiming to stimulate public interest in the effective development and transfer of environmentally responsible technologies and establish tangible results through a partnership of the IG community and other stakeholders.
So we what we expect out of the session. First, we want to discuss the issues and the challenges and the scope of green company, environmental rights and governance, and regulatory frameworks and policies that are in the production and consumption. And we aim to inform participants on these areas, and we would be aiming for them to engage themselves in these conversations even after the IGF.
We also want to stimulate discussions on the different effects on damages to the environment and also its impact on the vulnerable groups and communities.
We are also expecting to advocate green economies as outcomes through collaboration and networking. And we all know that this could lead to innovation, capacity building for grants, and policy recommendations after IGF.
We also want to raise awareness about different vulnerable and marginalized groups who are exposed in the digital world. And we also want to plan for launching an ethical online campaign to set forth the interests of such groups along with their means of sustainable livelihoods.
And, finally, we also want to encourage the policy makers to reform the laws to make it more inclusive and sustainable for all.
So I want to move on to the policy questions we will discuss with our speakers. So our first policy question is how do we advance sustainable and efficient computing production and consumption in the milieu of the fourth industrial revolution?
And Jaewon, maybe we can start with you.
>> JAEWON SON: Thank you. As a person working on internet governance and environment, initially when I saw the question I was wondering if the cloud engineers and computer scientists know about the concept of sustainable computing.
So I asked one of the friends working at one of the biggest companies in Korea like for internet and she says she has never heard of like such a concept.
So I believe not every environmentalist would have a good idea about it as well. But just knowing about -- the computer scientist not knowing about sustainable computing was quite a surprise to me.
So in this regard, I believe having an environmental track on Internet Governance Forum will bring more people and multi-stakeholders having a discussion and letting the others aware more about the concept. So I believe we made the initial step towards it.
One of the examples that have advanced the sustainable computing and production consumption in the first industrial revolution, I would like to introduce Korea's recent new deal.
So to build back better and in response to COVID-19, Korea's investment is now being more focused on strengthening the data AI and network throughout the economy and fostering the tech industry by supporting the online activities and remote work among the SMEs so that they can create more job and more business opportunity in response to the economy that has been going down due to the COVID-19.
So by investing in digitalization and infrastructure and technologies, we aim to utilize all of the 5G and AI in all industries. And we believe initially it will lead to the sustainable growth around the country.
But not every country would be able to change into a digitalized society so we believe greater cooperation across the countries would speed up the process. I will stop here. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you for your input. We can continue with Dr. Daniel.
>> DANIEL JR DASIG: Hi, everyone. As a member of the Internet Society Philippines and as a researcher and telecommunication company executive, I have seen over the years that the geography of innovation continues to shift including the developing economies with the most significant progress with those of underdeveloped.
Looking at the political environment, education, infrastructure, and business sophistication. However, some of the developed and the regional leaders of innovations are also the most polluters in the world.
So although we have the polluters pay principle, we should look into what underpins pollution affecting land, water, and air which derive from the use of the internet ecosystem.
While underdeveloped economies primarily rely on the primary economic activities which directly impact the environment, we need to forge and advance sustainable and efficient computing production and consumption especially in this fourth industrial revolution era and COVID-19 pandemic.
We need to foster the use of services and related products which respond to the basic needs and bring a better quality of life to society by not compromising the needs of tomorrow.
We need to bring into the table an innovation ecosystem and public policies that stimulate conversation towards integration of the social, economic and environmental objectives.
In my perspective as a professor, at the basic start of education sector that providing awareness campaign, programs and partnership because after all we need the community intelligence. As we all know, there is no smarter than us. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you. Ms. Chineyenwa Okono Onu, maybe we can continue with you.
>> CHINEYENWA OKONO ONU: Sorry, I can hear you now.
>> MODERATOR: It's okay. Ms. Chineyenwa Okono Onu, let's hear from you then.
>> CHINEYENWA OKONO ONU: Thank you, everyone. I'm very excited to be here.
I think that my colleagues have shed in more light on this and just to add a little bit to how we can advance our sustainable efficient computing.
I think education will play a major role to understanding setting policies that need to be put in place. In the end, it all comes down to people and value for me. And we need to shift the future that works for all of us by putting people first, by empowering them with information and knowledge.
Just like mentioned there is a policy and even the sciences do not know about this. Education and information is very important in order to drive education. And in order to drive information and implement setting policies.
In the most pessimist form we need to understand at that time future of industrial revolution may have a potential to robotize humanity and deprive us of heart and soul.
We need to have creative and stewardship to efficient production and consumption in computing.
It is important that we look into a new collective and moral consciousness based on how we share information based on how we implement certain policies, understanding that the environment is the center of it all and people have a major role.
Inasmuch as we are identifying policies and sustainable ways that are efficient, we also need to consider the human face in champions of the solution. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you. And finally, Mr. Mohammad Atif Aleem, let's have your input on this.
>> MOHAMMAD ATIF ALEEM: Thank you very much. This is an important question how do advance a sustainable and efficient computing production and consumption in the milieu of the fourth industrial revolution.
So if you are talking about the fourth industrial revolution, many industries think it as industry 4.0. It is the ongoing automation tradition and industrial practices using the most modern and smart technologies we have at hand.
Many -- the code of the agenda is in synch with what the policy question states that how do we advance these. So definitely as my panelists, used the latest technologies, be it Internet of Things or the computing solutions, I thank we can rightly advance the sustainability to the computing in the production and consumption area.
So sustainable production and consumption aims at doing more and better with less. In current or critical times, we already all of us are sitting at home and we aspire to do more and better with less.
Increasing the network from all economical activities. Because a sustainable development will be achieved not only by growing our economies but by minimizing waste in the process of doing so.
A lot of energy consumption has been cut since we are not traveling. And the environment development on the backward track. I rightly agree with the other panelists that government and policy making also has a key role to play in driving this sustainable and efficient computing efforts.
For example, if I have to state the UN DP human development report points out that many developing countries lack the capacity and resources to assist climate related rates. For instance, there is a severe lack of meteorological stations in Sub-Saharan Africa region where farmers mostly depend on rain for the agriculture.
There is basically a modern need of information and communications technology to penetrate these vulnerable regions and so that we can adapt to climate change.
So the more penetration of digital is there the better for production and consumption activities. That is my view on this policy question. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you for your inputs. I will move on to the second policy question.
And that is how can we guarantee good use of the internet without harming the environment?
I would like to first start with Dr. Daniel for this question. You're muted. Still muted.
>> DANIEL JR DASIG: All right. Sorry. Can you hear me now?
>> MODERATOR: Yes, yes.
>> DANIEL JR DASIG: Thank you. So the internet has completely changed our lives.
And with the current ramifications of the fourth industrial revolution milieu where it was characterized with more connected or interconnected end devices like our smartphones, computers, laptops, servers.
Because of this demand of the fourth industrial revolution from construction of the minerals to the manufacturing of these electronic devices to posting the data center operations in managing the services that we are using as end users including infrastructure services towards that temporary and permanent flow of data online.
We have had a huge impact to our digital footprints and higher energy consumption. More importantly, with the COVID-19 pandemic, more issues with the higher demands of telecommuting. It is a work-from-home setup, telework, modalities which requires more data centers.
And so these data centers requiring more energy to be consumed and thus contributes to carbon emission. So how can we foster or guarantee good use of internet without harming the environment.
Well, actually, we can reduce by way of doing household occupational or into a global landscape reduction of our digital footprints.
So at the large part of energy consumption being linked to internet use nowadays comes from actually the values of our equipment and on the enterprise and corporate level we can develop policies which transcends policies, equipment or asset management that allows employees or users to be responsible in the consumption of cloud services because reduction of cloud services constitutes reduction of energy consumption in the data center.
So as to limits of video streaming as large volume of video streamings as well with high energy consumption on the aspect of data center and infrastructure management.
Looking into the industrial technologies, many consumers also continued to use fourth generation technology at home instead of using the wi-fi which consumes less energy when you are using mobile network.
So we need to educate. We need to establish local, national or global policies which advocates responsible consumption at the household level, at the national, regional or the global space. Thank you very much.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Jaewon, maybe we can continue with you for your inputs on this policy question.
>> JAEWON SON: Sure. When it is easy to imagine what is coming out from core consumption, I think not many people realize the impact of e-mail. Like, for example, if you have long e-mails with all of the attachment it can have a carbon footprint of like 50-gram.
And it is because they use all of the data centers and the computers spend the energy in sending filtering and reading all of the messages. So minding about the influences about the internet, I think we should talk about what can turn to the environment.
Along with the Green New deal also having a Green New Deal and a response to the climate change. So government is planning to transform the public urban areas into green zero energy whereas the building with the clean water supply system to security drinking water supply and strengthen the prevention outlying the IoT and AI. I think not many people are familiarized with the IoT and water management so I would like to touch a bit upon that.
In Asia-Pacific region, there are still a thousand billions of people having both economic and social loss due to the water management. And when there is tsunami, it is hard to observe the areas by going there.
When there is a disaster with the large disaster, the IoT can be utilized by having the satellite images so they can look around without going there to see the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
By detecting the surface of natural disaster area, utilizing the AI and state like image that type process by the specialized computing and then move on to the person who has been specialized with all of the geometrics and stuff that which it has been used to save the people and deal with the environmental disaster that might have came with the climate change.
So utilizing the IoT or the internet technologists, advanced technologists has been increased in the field of disaster management and has been extremely useful tool to having an immediate follow-up for flood or hurricane or any other natural disaster.
So I believe the internet, say, are useful in terms of those kind of environment disasters. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you. Mohammad Atif Aleem, if we can have your input on the policy question.
>> MOHAMMAD ATIF ALEEM: I completely agree with the panelists here.
So to guarantee good use of the internet without harming the environment, first of all, it is important that we understand the digital carbon footprint.
So it was quite -- I mean I was amazed at knowing that the computer scientist is not knowing about how much carbon footprint is generated out of a data center or for that matter because it is very necessary that we have knowledge about that. And then only we can take those actions that my fellow panelists mentioned about.
And every time we perform, like Jaewon mentioned about e-mail, so even simple daily action like browsing of websites and sending and use e-mail and saving an app on the phone, data is transferred between the devices and service into websites or software are hosted on.
The more the data is stored, the more electricity and energy is needed. Even though as an individual it seems relatively small, but when multiplied by billions of people globally that are all connected to the internet, it really amounts.
So the IT industry greenhouse gas emissions are predicted to reach 14% of global emissions by 2040. And the United Nations International Telecommunications Union has set the industry the target of reducing emissions by 45% over the next decade.
So one interesting thing that we as a government and responsible citizens can do is make the directory or check the directory of the server that our website is hosted on.
For that, many tools are there. For example, there is one called the Green Web Foundation which maintains a directory of all server data centers and hosting providers using hundred percent renewable energy. So they have a free tool on their website which allows you to test any website you are on and discover whether it is powered on 100% renewable energy or just using fossil fuels.
Because it is more important to make sure companies that are building the internet are switching to renewable and phasing out fossil fuels.
Because that is when the searching will be more guilt free. And if I have to talk about my individual company, so even the IT companies in India are taking steps to make green buildings and green offices.
But in a remote location for now I think it is more about the data centers which needs to run on renewable energy rather than the conventional fossil fuels we have been running on.
That is how we can guarantee good use of internet without having much effect on the environment. Yes.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. And I would like to give the floor to Chineyenwa for her input.
>> CHINEYENWA OKONO ONU: Thank you so much. I think Mohammad really hit on some of the points I was going to make.
But for the individual, the inputs come from streaming videos and watching Netflix, you know, amongst other things. And we need to as people be able to educate us, we need to be able to facilitate education to get people to understand what their carbon footprint is individually.
And even like you mentioned, the internet that we use. What is their capacity? Are they looking at renewable or fossil fuel or however. And also looking at how the pandemic has, you know, made quite a number of us focus on doing more stuff online than we would do in person.
So I will just share a few opportunities at which we can reduce our own footprint as individuals because even though we are looking to pass on policies, I feel like as individuals we have the major role to play in ensuring and making sure that those policies are implemented by what is changing ourselves and changing our behaviors as well.
We can try to use, you know, use our phones more than using our laptops because of the electricity voltage that is used. It is very important.
We can also unsubscribe from e-mails and mailing lists. The speakers touched on the importance of understanding what carbon footprint you are making. By leaving all of those mails in your newsletters that most of us mostly never even open.
And also consider using cloud-based storage as compared to having most of this stored on your devices, on your phone. I was interested to find out that Google operates some of the most highly efficient data centers in the world.
And it has been one of the largest corporate purchasers of renewable energy. So we can consider backing up pictures on cloud as compared to using -- they can give you a list of organizations and green web hosts hosting for those of us who are into the technology space and developing sectors and amongst the digital could use the green hosting sites to host your softwares however.
And just really just understanding that every single imprint that you make on the internet has a ripple effect on the environment one way or another. We need to create the conscious education to let people know of the endless opportunities available and how they can access and utilize them. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much to all of the speakers who provided input for question number two.
Let's move on to the third question. This one is on SDGs. So how can SDGs 9, 12, 11 and 13 be fostered digitally and lower the impact on the environment?
Atif, maybe we can begin with you for this one.
>> MOHAMMAD ATIF ALEEM: I basically think that the information and communications technologies can help the United Nations SDS achieve these goals that are mentioned there.
So I mean helping to build resilient infrastructure for promoting inclusive sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation, which is SDG 9.
A lot is still being leveraged for the use of these services. For example, there are education startups, or there are food delivery startups. So a lot of innovation in the e-commerce sector has come up which leverages this SDG and contributes to SDG 9 by using a robust technology framework.
Then if I have to talk about SDG 12, it is responsible consumption and production. So one of the issues is of e-waste to buy the communication and information technology.
So if this e-waste can be tackled like global strategies and standards and policies can be laid done by the government. Because during the pandemic, a lot of dependence has been there on the electronic for the items in digital medium.
So a lot of e-mails being generated. If they can be disposed of sustainably, we can make some good progress.
Apart from that, if I have to talk about climate change action, then again revolves around green data centers and green power feeding systems for the information and communication technologies.
So it is upon organizations to, you know, plug in those sustainable parameters and whatever the scope of business in the digital media. And if they can do that and maintain the dichotomy between sustainability and profits because we have to do that if we want to make a sustainable environment.
That will be the key, maintaining the dichotomy between sustainability and profits for larger organizations for the SDG levels of 9, 12, 11 and 13.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you. Dr. Daniel, we can move on to your consideration.
>> DANIEL JR DASIG: Thank you. So with the full effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, information and communication technologies have been on the front lines in building the response and mitigating the risk.
The crisis has actually leveled the world. The crisis has also accelerated digitalization of many businesses and services, and that includes those other sectors of the economy.
Now I would like to cite an example of a service industry innovation which fostered digitalization by providing the needs of the communities and the cities.
In the Philippines, we have service delivery providers which allow the Filipino people to place their order online and their products ordered, and food are delivered at their doorstep.
And so with ICT has actually aside from work, it provided access to healthcare and nowadays while subscribing to the essential goods and services.
So on the other note of responsible consumption and production, ICT has also leveraged the manufacturing sector with the use of internet of things, or IoT, artificial intelligence which has removed the manpower in the production line.
And so with the removal of the manpower going towards the robotics application it has, indeed, reduced more energy consumption because of the automation and the robotics application.
And in the service industry and manufacturing sector, with the application of the line manufacturing, and green center we have reduced the carbon emission while we are sustaining the needs of our communities and developing these communities into becoming a smart communities and cities. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Ms. Chineyenwa Okono Onu, maybe we can go on with your contribution.
>> CHINEYENWA OKONO ONU: Can you hear me?
>> DANIEL JR DASIG: Yeah.
>> CHINEYENWA OKONO ONU: Okay. Sometimes it feels like it is off and on so I'm not quite sure.
Thank you so much for that question. Now for me, understanding the SDGs and how we can lower the impacts that are fostered digitally, we need to look at it from the targets.
I would like to highlight a target on SDG line says look at how to increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises particularly in developing countries to financial services including affordable credit and integration into value chain and market.
I feel like it is very important that they are able to have access to set certain information and certain skills that can enable them scale up the value chains in order to marginalize impact.
Because some of the challenges that they face or what I say that is affected in the different areas is around people not being able to have the necessary enabling infrastructure to be able to structure across the board. And that way they are not able to manage any form of impact, not think about lowering the impact.
So the challenges are around providing them with affordable credit that integrates is very, very important.
Another area that I would like to talk about is supporting green initiatives to equip the different sectors or the different actors across the world and to understand the challenges and opportunities of the coming transition. And to have them take up role that must play in managing the change, managing the necessary change in the way that they could also look at lowering the impact, especially with regards to the environmental sustainability.
It will further be the case that the work approaches a social dialogue in order to be able to drive a truly transformative change. Providing the necessary skills capacity and education and information and mostly financial needs would help lower the impact digitally.
That way they are able to marginalize certain information in the way that it is clear and in a way that it is approachable and in a way that it is relatable and in a way that you can actually create an economic transformational change via that process. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you. We can move to Ms. Jaewon.
>> JAEWON SON: Sure. I think there are several ways to contribute to those SDGs while having lower impact to the environment.
For example, to conserve the energy, I think we should implement intelligent smart system while expanding clean and renewable energies like wind, solar and hydroelectro in power. While to minimize the pollution and put in smart factories what the industrial heat and waste and investing in the green innovations through R & D I think green tech businesses can be promoted. And those businesses would, like, use less carbon footprint while leading the green industry. I think it will be helpful.
While we can also support the technical implementation of clean plans for reducing the contamination and establish the low carbon and green industrial complex.
In conclusion, adding the industry innovation to urban spaces and building smart distribution system would be a key to contribute to enhancing sustainable computing production and consumption with the good influence to the environment. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much to all of the speakers for the contributions. I want to move on to the next policy question.
So what is the role of quality education in enhancing sustainment initiatives?
I would like to start with Dr. Daniel for this one.
>> DANIEL JR DASIG: Thank you. I would like to answer that directly.
Educational development and management of education institutions should transcend at enhancing quality education as a cornerstone of sustainable development goals.
Students are exposed to communal, real societal issues and the current ramifications. So good education will advocate open innovation that encourage students and teachers to explore and investigate problems and uncover and promote novel ideas and advocate innovation as a solution and design and delivery and assessment.
The frameworks policies and standards and models of sustainability of transformative relevant and socially significant education modalities will strengthen the teachers and student development as our future leaders.
Quality education also enhances sustainable initiatives as it guarantees open-minded, innovative, service-oriented, relevant, and socially responsible citizens. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Atif, would you want to take the floor? You are muted.
>> MOHAMMAD ATIF ALEEM: Hi, can you hear me now?
>> MODERATOR: Perfect.
>> MOHAMMAD ATIF ALEEM: I think the role of quality education in enhancing sustainability initiatives is immense.
I was just browsing through some of the questions, and I see a very important question asked in terms of education only. Like Weronika asked if we know any country where sustainable computing is in the curriculum of IT degrees at the university. Being a minor of information technology, I didn't have a dedicated subject to sustainable computing.
Only a part of it was in some of the chapters of computing architecture and also e-waste. It is very important for the academic institutions and private companies and technology-enabled companies to develop partnerships in -- collaborative partnerships with the research think tanks to deliver lectures to students where they can explain the role of effective sustainable computing.
Unless and until the computing generation doesn't know the harmful effects of the computing can have, they will not be able to, you know, do the coding analysis and develop solutions forward.
And now I think since we have been coming up with a lot of ICTs now and there is a concept of associated energy with respect to each transaction that is made and even the data has been at the forefront like data is the new world. So a lot of transition has move on to data science.
There is a huge gap in terms of still imparting quality education for sustainable computing. I think that gap can be filled by research institutions, by academia if they develop partnerships and include them in their curricula to impart new technology and what latest developments are there, then I think the youth has a capability to solve and tackle these challenges. A big positive yes from my side, I think.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you. Chineyenwa, could we have your input on the subject?
>> CHINEYENWA OKONO ONU: Thank you. This is very, very important and key to the work that we do where education is a lifeline of the life process of the entire work that we do.
Now, quality education for sustainable initiative is paramount because of the role that we think that young people especially have key ideas and ways that sustainable innovations can solve some of the challenges even around sustainable computing and consumption and production, amongst other things.
I would like to highlight an organization in Malaysia called the BGBG initiative. They have a maker space and part of what they do is educate people on how they can use steam-based approach in developing some of the ideas and some of the innovations as a way of driving education in the more practical way in Malaysia.
And we are excited to have partnered to drive more education on sustainability as a focus place in technical skills like production, producing packaging, coming up with new product design and secular product and design, amongst other things. So I think quality education is important.
In Africa, we will think about education from a particular perspective, you would understand that the curriculums are different.
But if you look at it from a sustainable point of view, which is one thing that we are doing currently is to look at how we can incorporate steam-based solutions as part of a streamlined curriculums of students, even with the master classes and sites school programs that we run with the secondary schools and also with some of the students.
It is important because it will help give them a general perspective. Research is important because when you are able to come up with streamlined blueprint solutions as to what it means to even consider sustainable computing as a course in the university, then you realize that they need to be more information that needs to come off of that process to be seamless.
So I what say that sustainable initiatives would drive these innovations with the necessary capacity, with the necessary information, with funding, financial enablement to be able to research more and find out information, practical information that they can use to be able to drive impact in the long run.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Mr. Jaewon, can we also have your contribution.
>> JAEWON SON: Yep. So when you are making a pair of jeans, it requires like 10,000 liters of water. And to make it into a denim jean, you use the toxic coloring material.
And some of it when it goes to the waterway, it really harms the environment. But when people know about the fact that the plastic bag is really harmful for environment, they do not know when they are buying a blue jean that they are harming the environment.
So if they are aware and being educated about the decisions they are making and what it is being influenced to environment and stuff like that, they might have not buying the blue Jean or anything at all.
Education would make more informed consumers and them having more responsible decision. So I think this shows quality education is taking place when it is advancing the sustainable initiative and building on to the more informed consumers. Not to mention that everyone should have more access to education when it has been digitalized.
I just wanted to highlight we should more increase interdisciplinary department and research so that more people will know the linkage between environment sustainability and internet and share others why is it important and how is it linked between each other because this space in university and everything is so specialized. And not every department know about the link between each other and stuff like that.
And I think in this digitalized world we should more promote having interlinked research and everything. Not to mention about the multi-stakeholder model and policy making process.
Not many people know why it is important for everyone to be engaged all together. If we educate them about why is it necessary for every stakeholder to be engaged in the policy process, and how can it stop the vicious cycle and everything, I think it would be a first way to have more sustainable initiatives. I will stop here.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. And thank you for the contributions for this policy question. I will move on to our last policy question that we are going to cover during our session today.
And that is how can gender equality be promoted through digital ways and in the associated SDGs for equitable distribution and representation?
For this final question, I want to begin with Chineyenwa.
>> CHINEYENWA OKONO ONU: Okay. Thank you for this question.
How can gender equality promote through digital ways is tremendous as we can already see education and campaigns and different ways at which people raising awareness which ways people are looking at inclusive way of representing, you know, all forms and genders in communication.
And I think the internet has enabled what I say the technology has enabled the seamless process of that.
But even at that, there are still more work that needs to be done in terms of ensuring that gender equality is targeted and mainstream especially when you are looking at it from a representation point of view especially.
So when you think about the conversations around how not necessarily men or women are represented in certain areas with the digital communication, you realize that the SDG has highlighted several ways we can do that, looking at it from the different targets is also very important that we consider that as a mainstream way of communication to ensure that people who are in the digital space that it is important to do so.
And looking at the policies, I really don't know much around the policy around quality mainstream distribution, maybe Jaewon or Mohammad can touch a bit on that.
But one thing that I know for sure is that the technology and the digital solutions that enable that process, the promotion of educating people, incorporating people, creating an inclusive space has been done, but there is still a lot more to needs to be done. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you. Atif, maybe we can continue with you.
>> MOHAMMAD ATIF ALEEM: Thanks. Thank you for your input, Chineyenwa.
And I think you were very right about how equality, gender equality, there are innumerable ways and non-exhaustive ways of promoting digital ways in terms of SDGs for distribution and implementation.
So if we go into the statistical terms. There is significant differences between female and male labor force participation. Globally, it's around somewhere close to 63% men versus 94% women. As well as two-fold representation of women in informal area of employment.
Around only 11% of executive positions at Silicon Valley companies are female. So even in the digital corridor, there has been less numbers. Even in the Fortune 500 companies it comes to around 5% of the CEOs who are women.
So when we talk about representation, they have been relatively low, but it has been increasing in the recent times. For example there was a stark increase in the Indonesian region where around 34% of the women labor force was there and has been increasing since then.
But if you talk about economies like in the Global South, for example, in India, we have around 14% of business owners who are women.
So it again comes, boils down to about, you know, spreading information about how women can participate in the digital on the equal footage and even do better than their other counterparts. It is just about that.
And there are innumerable opportunities for that. For example, many corporations are launching gender-based like same opportunities, creating opportunities from the view of a gender lens and promoting women to come forward and participate and contribute for the cause of SDGs.
A large part of the Indian economy is about agriculture. So there has been a rise in females there. So if see we a rise female agri-trainers, definitely the future of agriculture would be digital farming.
So if these female agri-trainers, if they can be taught the basics about digital forming, about how weather predictions and modelings could be done to have better yields of crops, then hat goal of SDG12 of better production, a large contribution of it can be attributed to a gender-specific audience.
It has a huge scope, as I said, and there is some very good NGOs. For example, even the United Nations women are helping to empower women and girls across all age programs and advocacy. They launch very exciting campaigns and advocacy programs related to all of the SDGs where they invite female entrepreneurs and leaders or technologists who are working or bringing radical changes in their society.
I would -- even in the session I would like to encourage all participants to actively reach out for these opportunities and like compete in that with an equal footing. And the rest would be good, and the numbers will automatically increase. So that is what I think about this.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. I want to move on to Ms. Jaewon for her inputs.
>> JAEWON SON: Thank you. For the percentage of women in the global tech workforce along with the statistics, 73% of women has been exposed to or experienced the violence online.
And I think having other skill would allow people to protect themselves from the cyber harassment.
While the social media can be a risk of having those abuse, it can be used as a tool to express the steps and promote equal utilizing. For example, there has been a hashtag me-too, and I think it was a good example of promoting the gender equality on the social media.
So currently the gap between skills are wider in older less educated and women in remote area in developing countries. And I think nurturing them and investing on shifting towards the economy is central to provide the increased access to online resource for those people, especially during pandemic so that everyone can benefit from this. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you. And finally, Mr. Daniel, we can have your inputs for this policy question. Could you unmute your microphone?
>> DANIEL JR DASIG: So I agree with inputs from my colleagues that gender equality besides being a fundamental human right, it is an essential element to achieve peaceful societies and with volume and potential for sustainable development.
And in this digital age, India has a key role in issues. And its women are excluded from the process, then we would have an emblematic way of our society exclude women from giving them their voice.
And so while it is true that there are advancements of women participating in the global outreach, although they have less understanding of technology based on some researchers fewer digital skills and less presence in online platforms and are less likely to own mobile or technological devices. So we need to further advocate and advance initiatives and programs for women to -- for women to achieve digital literacy including access to digital devices and technologies with the affordability of the same technologies.
I think we need to educate women to use these tools proficiently so that they can also shape their own strategy and participate in some directives and conversations.
To this end, I would like to view that education is the key. So we need to educate more women and girls because good quality education will lead to innovative and sustainable initiative. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We don't have much time left so I want to move on to Q&A.
We have two questions from the audience during the session. So do now know any country where sustainable computing is the curriculum of IT degrees at universities?
Jaewon, would you please answer to this one.
>> JAEWON SON: Sure. Thank you for the question.
As far as I know, Australia National University ANU, offers the IT sustainability as part of the roster courses in the technology and engineering master program.
And I am not sure if I'm right in pronouncing, I just put on the chat, so Athabasca, this university also has like green IT strategy courses.
But if you want to have final degree with the sustainable computing in UK there is Leeds Beckettt University. You can check on those university website and see if there is anything that you might be interested.
>> MODERATOR: Do you have any inputs for discussion, Mr. Daniel?
>> DANIEL JR DASIG: Thank you for the question.
I'm teaching in the graduate program of the University in the Philippines and part of the curriculum is technology and project management and emerging technologies.
So these courses on course with the green IT computing. We also have the lean project management which coincides with the sustainable computing as part of the curriculum.
So well, it is a good question because in the design of emerging technologies, we need to consider technology roadmap.
And in building technology roadmap, you need to look at the space of the environment, it's impact in the society with, of course, the best economic, social and technological. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. I will move on to the second question.
It is actually more a discussion question. So it is true that cloud-based storing solutions pollute less than the local storage, however for many organizations local storage is a matter of security.
The tradeoff between environment and security is a difficult one to manage. Atif, would you prefer to answer this one?
>> MOHAMMAD ATIF ALEEM: I can take this one. So to answer, it's not exactly true. Like I haven't seen any comparison between cloud-based storage solutions or local storage.
But definitely the cloud-based solutions are more energy efficient because if you are using in-house data centers it requires several servers and backup systems to be running 24/7. And that will take a lot of energy in terms of generated carbon footprint.
If we compare it that way, energy efficiency wise, then the cloud is more the suggested alternative and also has the benefit of allowing remote working and having a paperless like mode of working.
Also, one negative point with the cloud is that it all bounces to like the data centers where the larger amount of data is being stored.
For example, AWS, the Amazon Web Services, the majority of the data centers are in Virginia. And like it has committed to create the new data centers 100 renewable energy, but the old ones, the majority, 70% of their data centers still run on other sources of energy apart from renewable.
So that was a concern that some environmentalists also raised. And Jeff Bezos announced he will be opening new data centers which will be fully run on renewable energy.
As you mentioned, absolutely the tradeoff between technology and sustainability is a very tough nut to crack, but with time we will be realizing that it is a very important step in -- so a lot of steps are being taken.
And I hope these will be for the good. So for now you can store your data on cloud so there is no issue. So let the technology companies handle their data centers. So yeah, on that note I would like to end this.
>> MODERATOR: Is there any other contributions for this question?
>> DANIEL JR DASIG: I would like to answer that good question because the cloud services with the ramifications of the fourth industrial revolution.
And Philippines, for example, is one of the outsourcing hub in the world. So subscribing to cloud services will reduce carbon emission from the data center because instead of putting up your own data center, procuring your own servers and having your own staff to mobilize and having the personnel to do the security and all IT stuff, subscribing to cloud services is one of the best outsourcing models that you can employ as an organization.
Secondly, having the cloud services will entail financial efficiency and personnel efficiency as well.
So I agree with clean computing initiative mentioned by Atif as to enterprise and organizational level. And I think I will end there. Thank you.
>> MOHAMMAD ATIF ALEEM: And a new technology called distributed cloud which is coming.
So instead of having multiple data centers, they will create replicas of that. So that will further use the carbon emissions.
We still have a long way to implement that industry wide. But steps have been taken by companies. You can log on to AWS and IBM and like resource centers and you will see a lot of resource materials on how cloud is making green initiatives. That is one suggestion I would like to get. That is all.
>> MODERATOR: I would like to say thank you for all of the speakers for the contributions on the policy.
And we went over time so thank you for the IGF for letting us talk. And I wish everybody a nice day.
>> I think we can have a quick photograph. Can you allow that for one minute, Viktor? I think any one of us can maybe click the photo with all. Even if we can have participants.
>> You can use the print screen as well.
>> I can send it over.
>> CHINEYENWA OKONO ONU: Thank you.
>> This is your host. Thank you for your participation at IGF 2020. Please leave your feedback through the form you will be automatically redirected to after closure of the session. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you so much, everyone.
>> Thank you very much.