Smart 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age: US Addendum

U.S. carbon emissions today total 6 billion tons, and if current trends continue, they will reach 6.4 billion tons by 2020. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has called for an overall greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 60-80% below 2000 levels by 2050 to avoid significant environmental damage.  Businesses and policy-makers alike now recognize that climate change is a global problem that demands immediate and sustained attention.

The information and communications technology (ICT) industry can enable a large portion of that reduction. By providing actors with the information necessary to make better decisions about energy consumption, ICT solutions can reduce the carbon footprint of human activity while improving quality of life. Altogether, ICT enabled solutions could cut annual CO2 emissions in the U.S. by 13–22 percent from business-as-usual projections for 2020. This translates to gross energy and fuel savings of $140-240 billion dollars.

This report focuses on four areas: A smart electrical grid, more efficient road transportation, smart buildings and travel substitution, such as virtual meetings. It also offers the federal government suggestions for utilizing the full potential of ICT to battle climate change, such as  monetizing carbon and encouraging the widespread adoption of broadband.