Information and Communication Technology for the Planet

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 11–15 see to the planet: they mean to help build sustainable cities and communities, ensure responsible consumption, fortify climate action, conserve and sustainably use life below water, and protect and manage life on land. ICT can find direct and multiple applications across each SDG: it is an existing and already widely deployed set of technologies that can be mobilized to both boost and scale improvements; it ought to be a crucial enabler, particularly if it helps poorer countries leapfrog development milestones.

Highlights

• The challenges of the 21st century are daunting: global economic growth per person led by emerging economies and a population that topped 7.3 billion in 2015 put great stress on Earth’s ecosystems, even as the agenda of the Millennium Development Goals remains unfinished. So, the SDGs aim for change at the level of the planet, a veritable seismic shift.
• The revolution in ICT provides the most powerful tool yet. Properly deployed, directed, and extended, ICT can be a tool for common good and accelerate action on the global goals.
• “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small,” said Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the Moon. ICT for the planet can help build sustainable cities and communities, ensure responsible consumption, fortify climate action, conserve and sustainably use life below water, and protect and manage life on land.