Preparing for RIO+20

While we are a long way from knowing whether governments will be successful at negotiating a useful agreement at Rio+20, it’s clear that the US government and the US ICT industry are on the same wavelength when it comes to the importance of ICT innovation in achieving the global sustainable growth and development goals to which governments aspire. This message could not have come through clearer than at the DESC side event that co-hosted at the UN last Friday.

Through our membership in the Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) 2012, DESC was able to secure an official side event at the 2nd Intersessional Meeting of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held last Thursday and Friday at UN Headquarters in New York City. Co-hosted with UNITAR and the International Chamber of Commerce, our side event was entitled “Rio Preparation Forum – Technologies for Sustainable Development,” and with thanks to UNITAR a webcast can be viewed here.

At approximately 22 minutes into the webcast, you’ll hear US State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Lawrence Gumbiner provide an unscripted and eloquent presentation on both the Obama Administration’s commitment to an innovation agenda as an essential element of future sustainability, and on the need to leverage ICT as a collaboration tool as communities across the globe seek solutions to the sustainability challenges before us.  In this regard, he features the US government’s major contribution to the Rio+20 preparations – the convening of US Rio+2.0 in Palo Alto in February.

Through this preparatory event, the US government seeks to bring together global policy makers and innovators to better appreciate how ICT-enabled innovation can offer solutions for countries at all stages of development, what helps innovation to occur, and what is already occurring, all with the hope that the event will help initiate further collaboration and concrete partnerships.

The speakers from DESC that follow in the webcast– Rick Goss of ITI and Steve Harper of Intel – give greater depth to these messages.  Rick is especially effective at emphasizing the importance of ICT to access – allowing individuals globally to share and participate; ICT serving as a tool for transparency, democracy, and empowerment; and, ICT providing broad access to medical services, education and training and weather and agricultural information.   Steve talks the room through a series of slides showing the astounding energy efficiencies that ICT has achieved, but rightfully stresses the more important story of the great potentials of the “macro” story.  It is the future contributions that our industry can and expects to make to global sustainable growth and development that most excites us.

Finally, David Post of IBM gives a great snapshot on the work that his company is doing in partnership with various cities in making those cities smarter.  It is very fitting that this includes a project in Rio de Janeiro, where IBM has embarked on a long-term program with the local government to use sensors, software and internet networking to improve the city’s use of water, electricity and transportation.   It constitutes a fitting example and omen for the government officials from around the globe who will gather there in June.