Green ICT: The rationale for a focus on curbing greenhouse gas emissions

Green Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) have the potential to significantly curb greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This paper provides a rationale for focusing ICT research and development efforts on curbing GHG emissions as opposed to only targeting energy efficiency goals. ICT's potential as a GHG emission reduction agent is described as are recent developments with respect to the creation of international standards for quantifying these ICT GHG emission reductions.