FINISHED COPY
EIGHTH INTERNET GOVERNANCE FORUM
BALI
BUILDING BRIDGES ‑ ENHANCING MULTI‑STAKEHOLDER COOPERATION FOR GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OCTOBER 23, 2013
9:00 BALI
WORKSHOP 54
6TH MEETING OF THE DYNAMIC COALITION ON
INTERNET AND CLIMATE CHANGE
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This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
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>> MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming so early.
I'm chairing this session on behalf of ITU. I'm a guest like you.
I will start this session by giving you a brief about the Dynamic Coalition and this presentation was actually prepared by Christine Bueti who is at ITU and in charge of Study Group 5 on ICT and Climate Change at ITU.
Briefly, the Dynamic Coalition, this is actually our 6th meeting for the Dynamic Coalition on the Internet and Climate Change. The Dynamic Coalition actually was created as an open body to develop the relationship between the Internet and Climate Change, to explore more how we could reduce the emissions and impact of the Internet on climate change and the environment as well as to discuss the potential that the Internet would have on issues related to climate change, such as disaster relief and some of the issues that were discussed yesterday I believe in the workshop.
The Dynamic Coalition actually is an open forum, an open group from different holders. I myself come from the government. I'm sure we have academia here, the private sector. It has 51 members. As you can see, the list of members here, we have quite a list, unfortunately we don't have many here today. We have about 51 members from different regions including Africa, the Arab region, Latin America, of course, Asia, Europe, the States, many members from all over the world that have very much interested in the issue of ICT and climate change.
The Dynamic Coalition is functioning under the supervision under the guidance of the ITU. The idea was taken from the ITU about six years ago. It has very simple terms of reference that are quite relevant at the same time. It is sharing information on future plans and initiatives from different members.
I'll be looking forward to hearing from you during this session promoting the issue of climate change in discussions and it is interesting that this year's theme is actually on sustainable development. When we talk about sustainable development we have to talk about environment, we have to talk about climate change. I believe that this issue is not yet fully or properly positioned on the IGF agenda. I hope that with your help and participation that we can further highlight the importance of the Internet and the environment or the Internet and Climate Change on the IGF.
Another important issue that's included in the terms of the Dynamic Coalition, what are the key issues related to the Internet and Climate Change, what is the Internet impact on climate change and what is the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Another area of interest, possible forms of cooperation between the members, what are the gaps? What are the partnerships and projects that could be leveraged?
Also, one of the main objectives of the Dynamic Coalition is to make sure that we're properly coordinating with the different entities working on climate change, mainly UNFCC and other bodies within the sector that are currently involved in this important issue.
Again, the Dynamic Coalition is a multistakeholder forum. It is a multistakeholder group and all stakeholders are very much welcome to have their input into its activities.
Yesterday actually the ITU organized a workshop on the power of the Internet for disaster management and environmental control. I would just like to allude to this only for a moment and then later I will leave my colleague Thomas to talk more about the details of this workshop that took place yesterday.
Finally, in general, if you wish to find more information on background about the Dynamic Coalition, I would like to invite you to check the Website of ITU and Climate Change and the pages of the Dynamic Coalition on the Internet and Climate Change which you'll find in front of you on this slide.
Thank you very much.
With that brief introduction I would like actually ‑‑ allow me to ask you to introduce yourself.
>> THOMAS HART: Thomas Hart from ITU.
From my perspective we're very happy to be a part of this Dynamic Coalition and support the work of it and also ‑‑ and also even more happy that when we do that in ITU as we are membership‑driven organization that we have very active ‑‑ our member states, active in that way. As an illustration today, maybe presenting ‑‑
>> On behalf of ITU ‑‑
>> THOMAS HART: On behalf of the ITUs as an organization with all the members. Not ‑‑ we have several hundred sector members and more than 600 academia members. You know, so we're happy to bring hat part ‑‑ that part to the Dynamic Coalition and hopefully have a good discussion with that as well about the work.
>> Good morning. I'm from Korea. I'm one of the academia.
As I talk to some of you briefly this morning, the main motivation for me to come to this Dynamic Coalition today is I see a lot of disconnections between the Internet and Climate Change negotiation especially my surroundings back in Korea. A lot of this Intergovernmental Secretarial, the U.N. Office of Sustainable Development, that's a climate change side, but in terms of ICT side, we have the U.N., APCIC, that trains, you know, the developing countries officers regarding the ICT issues. Also, there are other, like, ICT institutions which are going to be hosted, the World Bank center, so that's one of the ICT institutions.
As this Dynamic Coalition is addressing the correlation between the Internet and Climate Change there will be, you know, very strong connections between two subject matters in the global level which I'm very interested in. If there is any, I will be willing to contribute more about, you know, the future activities.
For example, the Green Climate Fund and the TZIZ, another climate change institution in Korea they're very interested in some kind of, you know, working together with the developing countries, how they can be helping the developing countries with ICT I think.
If there is any issues I can contribute to this, I will be happy to do that.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you so much.
>> IAN PETER: Good morning.
I'm Ian Peter. I'm from Australia, but I have no relationship with the Australian government of a formal means and note that the Australian Prime Minister only a couple of hours ago described the intervention of the U.N. describing the current bush fire disaster which we're facing around my home and in most of New South Wales and Australia as having some relationship to climate change. The Australian government is a long way away from this.
I come into this from Civil Society. I have been a long‑time member of the Internet Governance Caucus Coordinating Civil Society Ethics in Internet Governance and came into the whole era of the Internet in the late ‑‑ mid to late 1980s working with groups of people to connect environmental groups around the world into the Internet as a platform for us to coordinate work.
It was originally with the Association for the Communications and we had GreenNet, DecoNet and other networks trying to link. The Internet has helped us to coordinate.
I would love to see some action from those of you who represent governments and coalitions of governments. I can assure you I will cooperate fully with anything that would encourage you to be a very Dynamic Coalition. Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much.
>> AUDIENCE: Good morning. My name is Isaldo Satario. I'm from Venezuela, a Latino American.
I'm looking for the ideas and to implement change, it is very important for my region. I represent a Civil Society.
My question is, what is the people of Latin America, how can we be a part of this program?
>> MODERATOR: Thank you so much. Welcome.
If you don't mind, write your name and position and your name so we can keep a record and we invite you in the future to meetings of the Dynamic Coalition as well.
Actually we'll hear from different ‑‑ very diverse places, Korea, Australia, Venezuela. I hope we'll have an interesting discussion and allow me, please, now to make a presentation about the different activities that are taking place at the ITU in the area of climate change and I hope this sheds light on the activities ‑‑ it is not the ITU as an organization as much as what the member states, the 194 I believe ‑‑ 193 countries are interested in currently because most of these activities are actually driven by the different countries.
Please, if we have any remote questions or any participants that would like to intervene at any point, please interrupt me. I would be happy to take a short stop and resume.
So, I would like also to mention that I have a different hat within ITU. I'm actually working on the issues of ICT and Climate Change within Study Group 5 of the ‑‑ so, I'm a part of that question on ITT and climate change, and I have been happy to do this actually for a couple of years now. I have learned a lot from this experience.
Briefly as we have mentioned, the ITU has 193 states and private sector members and 63 of the academia.
As you know ‑‑ and I'm sure this would be an important fact to note as well ‑‑ that ICT are a powerful cross‑cutting tool. Actually by the end of 2013 we're going to have about 6.8 billion total billion in mobile cellular subscriptions, almost as many as people are on the planet. We estimate 2.7 billion people will also be connected to the Internet. So, with these numbers, the ICT is becoming a very important and powerful tool all over the world.
A tool that could be very instrumental in mitigating and adapting to the climate change. ICT actually plays a double role in climate change. Sometimes we look at ICT as part of the problem because there's about 2% emissions of CO2 from the sector, we expect this to be up to 5% by 2020. This is the side where ICT or the Internet is part of the problem. However, the tools themselves, the ICT tools themselves are part of the solution because we know that they provide different instruments that could help several sectors make and adapt to the climate change very simply through the developing of transport, some smart motor systems, links, smart biddings. This is all tools being used in different parts of the world to save energy as well as a tool to provide a better or irrational management of natural resources particularly water and electricity.
Different countries have explored the use of ICT in the mitigating, adapting to climate change. Many more countries are still on the way to understanding the full potential of ICT, which I hope we can actually help in this in promoting through our forum.
One of the main instruments that have been used to explore the potential of ICT and climate change or ICT and the environment has been Study Group 5 of the ITU. What is Study Group 5 doing? This is a picture of the group that's been taken ‑‑ I think it was taken last February in Geneva.
Study Group 5, it is the lead group for environment and planning change. The ICT climate change tackles issues related to electromagnetic compatibility and electromagnetic effects. It is a multistakeholder group. They have experts that come and discuss at least twice a year through intensive sessions different issues. We call them questions.
So Study Group 5 itself is divided ‑‑ these people into five working parties, and the working parties, each one is divided differently from this simple slide.
This is one recommendation, it is l1410. The environmental impact of the ICT in organization, this is L1420 and environmental impact of ICT projects, L1430. These are four recommendations that have been produced, there are more on the way. We have L1440 on the environmental impact of ICT in cities and L1450 on the environmental impact of ICT in countries.
Each of these recommendations presents different methods for assessing the impact of ICT in the different areas that they have specified and put in separate boxes.
I would like to shed light on stakeholder groups that are already in place and effecting the change in climate change. One of these areas is actually a focus group on smart sustainable cities.
The focus group on smart, sustainable cities is another mechanism that is functioning within the ITU Study Group 5 and the focus of this focus group is to discuss different ‑‑ how to standardize smart, sustainable cities, how to help different cities become smarter and what are the important economic and environmental standards that should be integrated ‑‑ ICT standards that should be in the functioning of the city to become as smart as I mentioned.
This focus group is open to all. It is a multistakeholder group, and it has been established in February and already it has actually held several meetings that discuss best practices within smart cities. It held a meeting in Italy, in Madrid, and there will be a meeting in Peru, in Lima, in September of 2015.
It is an important group. It is led by Telefonica. The chair of the group is from Telefonica.
The focus group itself is divided into four working groups that are attempting to develop a roadmap for sustainable cities, studies on ICT infrastructure to build small sustainable cities and standardization gaps and metrics.
I encourage all of you who are interested in the smart, sustainable city focus group to visit the site of the ITU, the focus group smart sustainable cities, you will find the data on the previous meetings, what the group is working on currently and what are the deadlines for making contribution to this group.
There is a very good opportunity to make a contribution currently to be presented in Peru, Lima.
Another important focus group I have been personally involved on is the focus group on smart management. The focus group is really the product of the workshop that was held by ITU in Egypt last April. It discussed the issues of smart water management, how the scarcity of water is effecting different continents ‑‑ of course Africa one of these continents ‑‑ but this is a problem that is faced in different parts of the world, and that the whole world has to confront and to deal with in a rational manner. The focus group attempts also to explore in details what are the different ICT solutions that could be used and there are so many solutions, the issue is to collect them, to compile them and to disseminate, promote them in a systematic way so the focus group would actually hold its first meeting in Peru also. The focus group is open to new members participating in it, developing ‑‑ and develop country members as well as from academia and multinationals. The main task, as you can see, it is to connect and document information on national, regional, international smart water management initiatives, specified roles to be played by ICT in smart water management. This mapping involves the areas of smart water and ICT because even the smart water part, ICT and smart water stakeholders are not known well and we have to compile a list of these stakeholders. Develop and keep performances and look at the ICT impact on the water conservation, identify water management ICT applications, draft technical reports that address the standardization gaps and those that used standardization in this important area of interest.
I invite you, particularly colleagues from Latin America, it is easy to go to Peru in this case. All of you are invited, of course, to participate actively in the smart water management focus group.
Another set of work that is also conducted by the ITU, corporation and partnerships, and in this case I would like to mention briefly that the ITU has developed a cool kit on environmental sustainability for the ITU sector. Many countries actually are ‑‑ I would say many multinationals, corporations working in the area of ICT have been seeking actually to make their work more sustainable so this tool kit is a practical support and detailed practical support on how the ICT companies can build sustainability in the operations and management. It is a standardized checklist of sustainability requirements specific to the ICT sector so it is a very down‑to‑earth, practical guidelines to different corporations, entities, maybe ministries focused on ICT and how they could make their work more sustainable. Briefly the tool kit includes an introduction of sustainable ICT and corporate organization, sustainable corporate, buildings, end‑of‑life management, general assessment framework, really an overview or comprehensive guidelines of different ICT corporations.
As you can see, those ‑‑ it is a multistakeholder corporation. You have over 50 partners that have contributed with their input and ideas into this tool kit. It is a practical work in general that can be implemented easily in the different corporations.
Another area of work of ITU in this field is actually research and studies. I would like to mention here that there has been an attempt to identify different policy needs in the area of climate change such as the case of Korea where there has been a quantification of greenhouse emissions. This study is available, greening in Korea between 2011 and 2020, a very important study. Another important study is climate change adaptation and information technology in Ghana and showed the potential of ICT in adapting and mitigating ‑‑ mitigation, the effects of climate change and it has a very concrete case, the case of Ghana, so it takes examples from an African country that's been suffering from different impacts of climate change as well as from other issues, very serious problems and this study is also available.
In terms of raising awareness activities: The ITU holds annual meeting, what we call the ITU green standards week. It is an annual event. It is a global plateau for discussion and knowledge sharing to raise awareness on the importance and opportunities of using ICT standards to build a green economy and ensure a sustainable future and brings together leading specialists in the field from top policymakers to engineer, designer, planners and government officials.
Upcoming workshops and events: There is a joint coordination activity that will take place in Peru. Let me clarify that the joint coordination activity, it is also a forum that brings organizations, different organizations from outside of the ITU who are all working in the area of climate change. You could have UNFCC, you could have different associations, UNEP, whatever, you name it. It is a way ‑‑ as the name denotes ‑‑ it is a joint coordination activity in the real sense of the word. There will be a workshop on smart and sustainable cities in Peru and the meeting of the focus group on the smart, sustainable cities and the focus group on smart water management, the ITU Study Group 5 and other events on smart sustainable cities. It will take place in March of 2014.
In conclusion, I would actually like to mention, that the effort of ICT and climate change, it is by nature a multistakeholder thing, it is not just a multistakeholder, but an effort that brings people from different sectors together. This area of work, where people, they learn from the environment or specialists in the environment, they have to incorporate closely with ICT experts to give actually concrete results and this may be a big challenge. I think that the ITU put in many forums, stakeholder forums that will allow for the open coordination of activities.
The second point I would like to stress on, it is that the potential of ICT has yet to be explored in full. In terms of practical guidance, as well as in terms of promotion and dissemination, many people do not realize yet the full power of ICT and sustainable development. It is quite a new area, regular actively speaking that we have an important role to play in it. I encourage you all actually to participate more and more in these activities.
I thank you for your attention. Thank you very much.
[Applause]
>> MODERATOR: Now I would like maybe to invite you ‑‑ to provide more details about your work so that we could see what other issues we would like to include in the work of the Dynamic Coalition.
I would open the floor to you, sir, please.
>> AUDIENCE: This may be easier with a microphone. Thank you, that was interesting to hear.
I'm glad to see that the ITU is involved in this doing work with the governments as partners. I noticed amongst your members a number of good, strong corporate partners as well. Which leads me to raise this area of concern, if I may: Particularly I'm concentrating in on the area of waste which, of course, is huge in terms of what we throw away.
A major cause of all of this waste is a manufacturing principle of design. I'm wondering whether this is being addressed, whether it could be addressed. It is almost a principle of manufacturing profitability that my phone after 18 months is so old I must throw it away. My computer after two years is so old, I must throw it away. If this trend continues, the waste problem, no matter how good your recycling gets, cannot be dealt with.
As well as dealing with the waste, once it does occur, I do realize it was good work going on in various places there, which is quite fantastic to see. I think there is something we have to do with corporations to examine this part of their modus operandi which is causing things to be flown away causing the toxic waste which we're just throwing into the landfill. The best efforts are not stopping that, we're creating a very toxic environment by parts of our manufacturing profitability.
I'm interested in any comments on that and I would love to see some work on that. I think it would be a terrific thing for your group to take up.
Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much, sir. Maybe we can take a round of questions and then we discuss.
>> AUDIENCE: Again, I have been very impressed about this very adapt presentation about what's going on with this activity with ITU. A thing I'm wondering, there is a lot of ‑‑ there are things about smart water, smart city, maybe we should also have to address a smartphone, smart TV, smart grade for example. A smart grade is a very relevant subject matter which embraces like ICT and electricity, therefore, environmental issues but also like a smartphone issue, I know there will be another session during this week about the governance issues because of the convergence of the Internet and the telecommunication and that's the product of the smartphone which is not discussed that much in the ITU arena.
I know there are a lot of different kind of platforms you can address that issue, likewise I know there is various initiatives about the city dialogue, it is not only ITU, the track, but a lot of the city concentrated, the global dialogue about how to set up some kind of the self‑regulation for the cities around the world.
So, even though there are some overlapping dialogues, I think ITU is the traditional telecommunication body. I think it is relevant for ITU to talk about the different smart things and including that smartphones and smart TV. For example, I know in Europe the people use the term of connected TV instead of a smart TV, but in U.S. and in Asia we use a lot of this smart TV. It is going to be a very big platform. It may replace, like, a smartphone in the near future. It will be interesting to see how smart TV or smartphone is influencing this ‑‑ the climate change, how to reduce the C02 in their old capacity. It may be an interesting component for the future of the Study Group 5.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much.
We have other comments?
>> AUDIENCE: In Latino America, it is very important for methodologies, what is the relevance of the provider of the new solution. And into Latin America, the sector IT is very expensive, the technologies.
Another question, is there a way to make this into a decimal? Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you, very much.
Thomas, would you like to address ‑‑ actually, I would like to just to address maybe the first question from the colleague from Australia, about the issue of the technologies and I think this is the challenge and the success of Study Group 5.
I have seen the multinational corporations discussing the universal adapter. There is very strong discussions right now about the universal charter. There has been an issue of this to be addressed. It may be coming in increments.
It is not easy for the corporations to make our sessions, but I have started to see a trend to compromise on certain issues such as the adapter or to do a study on a universal charger that may be after that developed into a recommendation for also a universal charger. I think the wait is still quite long. It is very difficult to ask all the big names to make immediate concessions. I think there is a realization that part of the problem lies in the sector itself.
The very quick obsolescence of tools and technologies that do happen ‑‑ I don't know if I have answered your question, but just that the feeling that we're on the way to addressing this. It is still a long path and I think the only ways to have the different corporations sitting together on one table and each one voicing its concerns and slowly each one would put some pressure on the other, also sitting with governments is useful. There is a dialogue that is taking place. I hope that Study Group 5 would be able to make more and more successes in the rationalization of the different adapters, charges, maybe later in other issues as well.
Concerning the second question, I would like Thomas, if possible, to address that. The question from the colleague in Korea about smartphones, smart grades and this new issues.
Is there other questions in ITU that would address these issues, Thomas? Would you like to ‑‑
>> THOMAS HART: Thank you very much.
First of all, regarding the first question and second, just adding a bit of the universal chatter on the chatter and recycling, so it is actually ‑‑ we're proud of that work that we have been doing and members that have been doing, the universal charger and adapter, we have specific recommendations out of I1001, and it is not only to have recommendations and standards, but also how it is implemented. And for example, there is recently now as the European parliament is discussing the element of radio communications and equipment directive, where they'll make it compulsory for all the European modes ‑‑ all the equipment to be delivered into Europe, to have universal mobile equipment, to have a universal adapter.
Many manufacturers are deciding to ship phones without the adapters allowing this kind of thing to move away from the shipping the phone with the adapter or without it, separating it. That's one element that's becoming less ‑‑ the longevity of one element is being discussed with that. That's one first thing that we're trying to move step‑by‑step.
Also, the development and recommendation, 1100, the recycling, that's another thing, you know, how to at least in some parts of that, of the recycle, and the production, it is a step‑by‑step approach, but it is an issue that we can't tackle.
I think, again, the good thing is, we have both as we have mentioned, when we have both sector members, manufacturers, operators, also members, it is allowing that process to be pushed forward and then regulated as it is happening in the European Union, and I'm hopeful it will happen in other regions as well.
That also, you know, the question of the smartness, the other smart devices, it is not only about what's been harmonized now, but it is not only the questions of the mobile universal charges, but the stationary universal charges or station devices, but that's also asked from that element. That's from the smartness from the ‑‑ I think from the recycling part or from the e‑waste part, that's how it is handled.
There is other work that's being done on smart devices, that will have our handbook on accessibility of the television, which is, again, some of the other questions, there is some work and, you know, I'm not now prepared to give the specific question specific study groups.
It is interesting, you know. We could definitely share that information afterwards and I could connect with the people that are ‑‑ that are in that sector working on the various sectors of the smart grids. There is a lot of work going on, not necessarily in the environmental issue, but just from the general standardization area.
Regarding Lima, I will ‑‑ I will give my contacts so you can contact me and I will connect you with the people organizing that and they'll definitely see a way, you know, how it could be discussed possible for you to spearhead that.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Thomas.
Can I also invite you to tell us a little bit about the workshop of yesterday and maybe about other activities of ITU in this area?
>> THOMAS HART: Thank you.
I think there was ‑‑ thank you.
So, very briefly, as we have discussed also ‑‑ mainly this work and presentation covers the ITU activities where ‑‑ the organization work, there is activities in other sectors, especially radio communication sectors that are well aware of the harmonizing‑spectrum use for various applications, special applications and various ‑‑ for example, in our world radio communication conference in 2012 there was additional spectrum allocated to ocean radars, to the meteorologist satellite services, to earth exploration satellite services, to, again, the recommendations on the collecting and exchanging of the information data. The work that's also crucial especially having regard to ITU as a place where the global spectrum is allocated, it is crucial to have this important resource, to be used for ‑‑ to be used for climate change prevention and analysis purposes.
TD sector, a lot of work is being done on a response element. Basically a disaster. You take a disaster management and disaster response element where we have the study group of 2, it has produced Emergency Communication Handbook, helping countries to use their telecommunication networks and sectors for disasters and we also provided very practical assistance to membership when the disaster strikes. We have provided them with equipment and also free communication services for that, you know, when they need that. That type of needs.
Yesterday's workshop was mainly concentrated ‑‑ although we discussed broader climate change issues, mainly concentrating to the disaster management aspects of that question. We had that very good, interesting presentation on specific case studies from Indonesia and from Japan.
Japan is in the forefront of that in two terms. One is not a very good term, they have the disaster and recently the biggest high profile disasters have happened in Japan but because it is a place where high‑tech responds to not only disaster but to general challenges and so on with the developments. A lot of lessons can be learned especially how to connect various information from various public services, how to collaborate with the Internet, the public sector, private companies, to set up the quick responsibilities.
I think for me, the most interesting thing also was this intersection between the disaster mitigation climate ‑‑ change, another topical issue, for example, the issues of privacy, especially when we talk about information disasters and collecting information allowing people to, again, inform others of their location and response to events. That's one issue, privacy, you know, big data as such.
Another topic that was highlighted, two sides working on, you know, people with disabilities, disasters, so, what does ‑‑ how the countries are prepared to work in that regard to assist people that actually have disabilities.
And I highlight that you recently have, October 19, the special event on especially people with disabilities and disasters, and an importance of metrics, for the further work to ensure that the metrics are resilient enough in the telecommunication networks to handle these kinds of activities.
Generally, it was a highlight trend. There is still a lack of international coordination and the disaster responds and the preparedness to receive international assistance so that countries when they have an issue sometimes there is still a lack of practices and frameworks to allow that assistance to come quickly and to be received on the ground quickly.
There is ‑‑ you know, for me, there is an area where you could also do more work to go with countries and in the organization sector, to allow that to happen.
That's a broad overview.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you, again, Thomas for this briefing.
Yes, indeed, this idea of disaster relief using ICT for this issue is extremely important. It is part of actually the different methodologies created by question 15 on the adaptation. One important focus is to also looking into how our ICT can be used in observation and disaster relief, collection of information, observation and turning that into specific actions in disaster relief activities.
We are, indeed, coordinating also the focus group on disaster relief that's been created. I think it is in ITU and coordinated with Japan as well with important findings in this domain. Okay.
Do we have any remote participants? Do we have any remote participants or any comments by the remote participants that are not comments? Okay.
So, do we have any comments on the work of the Dynamic Coalition that you would like to share? Any suggestions?
Just hoping that our next meeting would witness more participation because I think that the potential is huge!
Yes? Please, yes?
>> AUDIENCE: Thank you for, you know, your responses, suggestions. One of the things I'm interested in ‑‑
(Audio disconnect).
>> THOMAS HART: Is an important time of review, so now all of the agencies are providing the activity to record, but also the visions for the check and that is ‑‑ we welcome views on that. We participate through so‑called chief executives board process, which is ‑‑ so all of the U.N. agency heads members of chief executive boards, chief executive board of the U.N., that body has a sub‑body which is high level programs and through that we coordinate all of the ‑‑ again, all activities in terms of climate change and other areas coordinating that.
Finally, ITU actively participates in the meetings of the climate change parties, the parties with on the negotiations. So for example, we participated in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and we ‑‑ both as an observer, but also helping to bring those issues to those that participated and the negotiators.
In 2012 for example, together there were commissions organizing an event talking about climate change and a low carbon future. Again, trying to bring attention to the delegates of those meetings, how their expertise could help mitigate those problems that are being discussed in those environments.
These are the mechanisms we're trying to involve other U.N. agencies as well.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Thomas.
I think you have given actually the real mechanism of what I would add to this.
(Audio disconnect).
>> MODERATOR: They are starting to realize gradually the importance and the relevance of the ICT in these negotiations so these are definitely some of the mechanisms that have been used to cooperate with.
Any other questions? With that I ‑‑ yes?
>> AUDIENCE: It is not really a question. It is really more of an observation I'm sharing with you as academia.
Whenever we come we always talk about this multistakeholder forum, right? This, the concept of multistakeholderism has not been in international relations, global governance for a long time. As far as I understand multistakeholder and climate change, it is totally different from the multistakeholderism in Internet Governance Forum that people are talking about. Basically multistakeholderism in the climate change is a very traditional view kind of multistakeholder region which means governments making decisions and civil societies and the private sectors, they ‑‑ like, yeah, they have observer status where they'll be invited to some of the sessions but most decisions will be made by governments.
On the other hand, this idea is this is a very experimental process of the multistakeholderism that's never existed in this global process. It is going to be very, very interesting joining those that have a different way of implementing the multistakeholderism in their own arena.
So sort of when we ‑‑ when ICT make climate change because ICT has a different concept of multistakeholderism which doesn't really have harmonious kind of the way of multistakeholderism in climate change. So maybe ICT and Climate Change can look into the different multistakeholderism between two global matters in Internet Governance. That's a fascinating subject matter for academia who have been doing research on different kinds of global models.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you so much for this comment. This is extremely important in the development. Thank you for pointing this out.
There is a difference in how multistakeholderism has been used in the case of the work of the ITU it is the mobile multistakeholderism because all participants, sector members, have the same say to a lot of extent it is from presence in the work.
Thank you for that. I will make note of that.
Anyone further?
Thank you very much, and we hope to see you very soon.
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This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
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