Over three days, April 23-25, the business sector, civil society, researchers, decision-makers and young people shared their perspectives on what we can do to achieve solutions in the areas of sustainable innovation, production and living. These three areas are of fundamental importance for the Rio+20 theme, “Green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication”.

I participated at the event by speaking about “Shaping sustainable cities in the Networked Society.” This discussion took place on the “Infrastructure, business support and communication for sustainable societies” panel. My colleague Olle Isaksson and I, also facilitated a roundtable on Transportation in Sustainable Cities together with Volvo Group and Scania. 

It was important for me to be involved in these discussions as Sustainability Director at Ericsson, because very few industries have the same potential to create a sustainable, low-carbon economy as the ICT industry does. While the ICT industry itself is responsible for 2 percent of global emissions, it has the potential to help significantly reduce emissions in the sectors responsible for the other 98 percent - up to 15 percent to 2020 according to the Smart2020 report.

The transport sector alone represents about 13 percent of global CO2 emissions – and this figure is set to rise. The problems of increasing congestion and emissions won’t be solved solely by new infrastructure. By applying ICT-based innovation to all transport modes – air, water, road and rail – intelligent transport systems can optimize how we get around and help to make transport cleaner, safer and more seamless. Intelligent transport offers gains in efficiency: for example, by reducing travel time, or monitoring metering of traffic, logistics and route flow. It also enables the connectivity required to support infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Today more than 50 percent of the worlds population live in cities, by 2050 this is projected to be 70 percent so the importance of city management in areas as diverse as employment, environmental management, public security, healthcare and education, becomes even more critical. Cities will increasingly require effective ICT strategies to be implemented across a multitude of industries in order to ensure sound social, economic and environmental development.  Broadband will be a key enabler for the delivery of these numerous services, such as access to healthcare, education, e-governmental services, virtual meetings and building smart grids.

The results from Stockholm+40 will be presented in side events and in an exhibition at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development from June 20-22, providing examples and solutions in the areas of sustainable innovations, sustainable production and a sustainable lifestyle.

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The Transformative Step of the Day initiative, which was supported by Ericsson and other industry and governmental partners under the umbrella of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), aimed to advance earlier discussions at COP 17 on the role transformative solutions can have in regards to climate change to more concrete action plans at local levels.

For three days, starting December 5, the GeSI, together with the UNFCCC, ITU and UN Global Compact, presented an award to leading  government initiatives that recognize low-carbon transformative solutions.

A transformative step can be a solution, activity or policy decision that supports transformative low-carbon solutions. Transformative solutions often provide emissions reductions to 80 percent or more compared with ‘business as usual’ and frequently depend on an underlying energy-efficient broadband infrastructure.

All delegates on site at COP 17 in Durban were able to participate in the initiative by submitting their ideas through the mobile app or web portal, which was then opened to anyone in the world for voting.

The first Transformative Step of the Day award went to the Green Commuting Fund, championed by the popular Chinese actor Feng Shaofeng. The Green Commuting Fund received the prize for the innovative and carbon-neutral transport solution that already has been used for example in Shanghai.

The second award was a different type of initiative, the 3GF ‘Public Private Partnership for Green growth’ which is a partnership that includes the governments of Denmark, South Korea and Mexico. The initiative sets up a new public-private partnership with a focus on transformative solutions that can deliver a zero-carbon economy and linking them to key processes such as the EU presidency (which Denmark is heading now), the G20 summit (taking place in Mexico in 2012) and the COP/CMP conferences. The 3GF is an especially impressive task because it links government bodies and processes. Denmark’s Minister of Climate, Energy and Buildings, Martin Lidegaard, was there to receive the diploma on behalf of the Danish government.

On the third day, the winner was quite a surprise.  Until about 30 minutes before closing the votes, the winner was expected to be the BASIC expert group, encompassing leading thinkers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China. But, at the final moments of voting, Su Wei from the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NRDC) passed the BASIC experts.

Su Wei and the NRDC received the prize for their event about policies and measures, which highlighted the need to shift focus from growth to quality of life. They emphasized the need for innovation in key areas such as buildings, transport, grids and industry.

All in all, it was a very exciting journey with a variety of winners and initiatives, which are all needed to put us on the path to a low-carbon economy. I will follow the winners and many of the other initiatives that were nominated to see the progress at COP18 in Qatar next year as well as the lead up to the Rio+20 meeting in June. Truly inspiring work!

Here I am talking to the Danish Minister Martin Lidegaard. Anders Kristoffersen, Public Affairs Manger at Novozymes is on the left and Lila Karbassi, Issue Leader, Environment, UN Global Compact is on the right.

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At the launch event of the UNFCCC’s Momentum for Change initiative, 10 inspiring examples of projects that help reduce CO2 and improve society were named – and the intelligent buses of Curitiba, our project with Brazilian operator Vivo, was among them. The event was moderated by Lord Nicholas Stern, Professor of Economics and Government at London School of Economics, and one of the leading voices on the economics of climate change.

One of the reasons this project was chosen was that it not only helped reduce fuel consumption in the city, but also helped the community by improving the efficiency and quality of the public transport system.

By naming such ‘best practice’ cases, UNFCCC secretariat seeks to build momentum for the evolving climate regime and recognizing projects that improve quality of life and have the potential to be replicable.

The Curitiba project did both these things, and shows us the possibilities of connected transport in the cities of the future.

The development towards ever-larger cities creates additional challenges in providing for the evolving needs of citizens. For example, cities need advanced transportation and construction solutions to connect the urbanized surroundings to the core. A high concentration of people can, if unmanaged, create serious traffic congestions, pollution, widespread health problems and soaring crime rates.

Intelligent transport systems will be adopted by the citizens especially if they reduce feelings of frustration. Frustration with buses that do not arrive, buses that pass by and are filled with people, trouble with tickets or buying tickets, different types of transportation modes that are not synchronized, the feeling of wasting the time…

Systems need to be predictable, efficient, convenient, for us, as citizens, to enjoy or be productive. This will create trust in new ways of moving around, to and from the city and increase the usage. The personal citizens’ perspective is vital in making this change happen.

I hope to see more projects like the connected buses of Curitiba in the future.

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The ICT industry itself is responsible for 2% of global emissions, yet has the potential to help significantly reduce emissions in the sectors responsible for the other 98%

According to the Smart2020 report,  produced by the  The Climate Group on behalf of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), with independent analysis by McKinsey & Company, ICT solutions can help to reduce up to 15 percent of the global emissions by 2020.

At Ericsson, we believe in the power of such transformational solutions and we are active in several areas during COP17/CMP7:

• We are part of the Swedish Pavilion, where we have set up a stand, participate in speaker corners and in Symbiocity seminars, where we share how the Networked Society and how ICT can be a key enabler solving global challenges and enable progress of people, business and society.
• We support the Transformative Step of the Day initiative, which was launched in conjunction with the global climate negotiations to increase focus on transformative low-carbon solutions and how they can be supported in the climate negotiation process. This is a online voting competition that will recognize a winner every day of the conference.

In order to meet the needs of the 9 billion people estimated to populated the world by 2050, there must be a shift from incremental to transformative solutions to solve the climate change.

The opportunity for the transformational power of ICT to put us on the path of a low-carbon economy and spur socio-economic development and has never been greater.

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