COP 21: IoT has role to play in driving sustainable development
With the COP 21 climate change talks well underway in Paris, Bettina Tratz-Ryan, Research Vice President at Gartner, shares her thoughts on how the Internet of Things (IoT) has a role to play in minimising the impact of global warming. One such way is to use the IoT’s analytical capability to assess real-time data flows on business processes to drive sustainable development, for example, "real-time energy consumption patterns in buildings linked to time of day and people traffic help real estate management to reduce operational cost, greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental footprint". Tratz-Ryan also suggests that sustainability and climate change should be key areas to consider when creating smart cities; cities including Copenhagen (Denmark) and Kyoto (Japan) are already successfully embedding environmental benefits into their smart city programmes by focusing on waste management and recycling, renewable energy and resource efficiency, air quality and reduction of emissions. 

The information and system intelligence and analytics capabilities enabled by the internet of things (IoT) could potentially help drive sustainable development around the world, according to Gartner research vice-president Bettina Tratz-Ryan.

As world leaders gather for the COP21 climate change talks in Paris – with the hope of securing a universal legal agreement on climate change that will keep global warming below a 2⁰C level – Tratz-Ryan set out a number of areas where the IoT could play its part in alleviating one of the most pressing global challenges.

She described the ability to perform real-time analysis on any operation or process as a game-changer when it came to creating environmental benefits. In effect, she said, this could make the IoT the eyes and ears of humanity.

“Linking vehicles, commuter traffic and air emissions to air quality is giving traffic management the right data to manage road guidance and parking,” said Tratz-Ryan.

“Real-time energy consumption patterns in buildings linked to time of day and people traffic help real estate management to reduce operational cost, greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental footprint.”

Furthermore, the use of social applications to share personal environmental best practice could create more of a “dynamic community approach” to climate change issues, encouraging the mass use of data to make changes at a personal level.

Embracing smart cities Although much has been written about the reluctance of many local authorities and city governments to fully embrace the idea of the smart city – often due to confusion – Tratz-Ryan pointed out that sustainability and climate change impact should be a key area to consider when seeking to address economic, social demographic and environmental strategies in a smart city. Read more about sustainability and climate change Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and IBM will award free access to supercomputing and cloud resources for climate-change research

Public cloud giant Amazon Web Services is being called on again to be more transparent about its use of renewable energy, this time by Green America She pointed to the examples of Copenhagen, Kyoto and Portland as cities that were already successfully embedding environmental practice into their smart city programmes. “Climate resilience is achieved not only by planning around emergencies, but by building a community that focuses on waste management and recycling, renewable energy and resource efficiency, air quality, and reduction of emissions,” said Tratz-Ryan.