| APrIGF 2022 Session Proposal Submission Form | |||||||||||||
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| Part 1 - Lead Organizer | |||||||||||||
| Contact Person | |||||||||||||
| Ms. Christine Or | |||||||||||||
| Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) * | |||||||||||||
| DotAsia Organisation | |||||||||||||
| Designation | |||||||||||||
| Project Manager | |||||||||||||
| Gender | |||||||||||||
| Female | |||||||||||||
| Economy of Residence | |||||||||||||
| Hong Kong | |||||||||||||
| Primary Stakeholder Group | |||||||||||||
| Technical Community | |||||||||||||
| Part 2 - Session Proposal | |||||||||||||
| Session Title | |||||||||||||
| Towards an EcoInternet - A Multistakeholder Dialogue on Policy Making and Strategising for a Sustainable and Energy Efficient Internet | |||||||||||||
| Session Format | |||||||||||||
| Roundtable | |||||||||||||
| Where do you plan to organize your session? | |||||||||||||
| Onsite at the venue (with online moderator for questions and comments from remote participants) | |||||||||||||
| Specific Issues for Discussion | |||||||||||||
| Building from last year’s session on the EcoInternet Index, the research on the various factors (i.e. Energy, Efficiency and Economy) affecting the Internet-environment relationship continues and the new phase of this project will be extended to 15 additional jurisdictions across Asia Pacific. Based on the studies and discussions with subject-matter experts, the approach to evaluate the environmental impact by the Internet is more complicated than simply identifying the carbon footprint of the Internet or a specific online activity for direct comparisons among jurisdictions, which can be misleading and debatable in many ways. Measuring the definitive amount of the Internet’s carbon footprint, as it naturally increases along with increasing usage, may not depict the real situation of its eco-friendliness, but instead, looking at how the accelerating growth of the Internet significantly replaces some traditional activities or industries which are way more carbon-heavy, can provide meaningful outcomes for policy directives and decisions. That said, it is foreseeable that the Internet usage will continue to surge, and therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the sustainability of the Internet network and infrastructure are included or even highlighted in the consideration and decision of any climate agenda and action plan. As our pilot study report pointed out, government and industry are the 2 key sectors which can create major influence on any fundamental and infrastructural changes to improve the energy efficiency of the Internet. We want to initiate a dialogue between these 2 sectors to reflect on the concerns around sustainability and address the obstacles faced in Asia Pacific region, to discuss how to collaborate in policy making to achieve the most beneficial results, and to invite other stakeholders to exchange views and ideas. |
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| Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF | |||||||||||||
| Sustainability has now become one of the major goals in every agenda at a global level, at industry level, down to individual level. It is one of the 3 thematic tracks of APrIGF since last year but the topic is only slowly gathering attention in the region. IGF has also started the Dynamic Coalition on Environment this year, which we see as an indication of the rising concerns within the Internet community. While “People at the Centre” is the overarching theme of APrIGF this year, the objective of our project on EcoInternet Index also drives public awareness and multistakeholder discussions on the impact of the ever-growing Internet on the environment that people live in. Asia is particularly lagging behind when it comes to sustainability and carbon initiatives. According to a recent report, Asia most frequently presents barriers to energy sourcing experienced by the members in RE100, the global corporate renewable energy initiative bringing together hundreds of large and ambitious businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity), with high cost of renewables, poor corporate procurement options and limited availability of renewables being common prevalent barriers. Despite these challenges, RE100’s membership has seen its biggest yearly growth in Asia Pacific. It now has 102 members in Asia Pacific, up from less than 10 in 2016, demonstrating the growing appetite from businesses in the region to adopt 100% renewable electricity. We are keen to initiate conversations among different sectors and foster collaboration in order to make sure the Internet network and infrastructure in the Asia Pacific region are capable of keeping up with the sustainable development goals. |
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| Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right) | |||||||||||||
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| Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible) | |||||||||||||
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| Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session. | |||||||||||||
| Singapore has established a moratorium on new data center projects since 2019 over the fears of excessive energy and space consumption. A recent statement from the government has confirmed that the city-state will resume new applications for data center developments from Q2 this year as part of a pilot project. The government has completed its industry review of the data center sector, set up new criteria of resource efficiency, and will be more selective regarding new digital infrastructure which can contribute to Singapore’s economic and sustainability objectives. We are planning to invite government officials from the Singapore ministry to explain the rationale behind the strategy and the challenges encountered during this process from policy making to implementation. All the big tech companies have made different kinds of pledges to green their operations and services. Microsoft, as one of the biggest cloud service providers, has pledged to become carbon negative by 2030 and offset all carbon that it has emitted since its founding in 1975 by 2050. We are inviting a speaker from Microsoft, who has taken up the role of Sustainability champion among CELA Asia team by connecting and collaborating with Microsoft headquarter to focus on sustainability related policy and programs, to offer insights on how the company is achieving sustainability goals and to provide feedback on government policies related to their business for greater success in protecting the environment. |
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| Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2022. | |||||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||||
| If yes, please detail the person and his/her level of engagement on your session proposal. (e.g. 1 or more of the PC members are co-hosting/moderating/speaking at the session) | |||||||||||||
| The session organiser is the Secretariat of APrIGF. | |||||||||||||
| Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2022? | |||||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||||
| Number of Attendees (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||
| Gender Balance in Moderators/Speakers (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||
| Admin Use | |||||||||||||
| S08 | |||||||||||||
| Consent | |||||||||||||
 I agree that my data can be submitted to forms.for.asia and processed by APrIGF organizers for the program selection of APrIGF 2022. |
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