The Future Impact of ICTs on Environmental Sustainability

This report presents the results of a research project commissioned to investigate the possible effects of ICT on a set of environmental indicators in 2020. The project adopted an innovative methodology combining qualitative scenario-building and quantitative modeling. The general conclusion was that the impact of ICT is roughly between -20 and +30 %. Therefore, there are significant opportunities for improving environmental sustainability through ICTs. ICT should accordingly be taken into account by environmental policies in order to ensure that ICT applications make a positive contribution to environmental outcomes, and, at the same time, to suppress rebound effects. ftp://ftp.jrc.es/pub/EURdoc/eur21384en.pdf