Rachel’s Blogs

So the joke goes a little something like this.

How many climate skeptics does it take to change a light bulb?

The answer: None. It’s too early to say if the light bulb needs changing.

But seriously, if indeed something is changing, then it’s company attitudes towards climate change.

Now while it might sound naive and somewhat overly optimistic – the technology market is awash with new and upcoming gadgets that are available not only for consumers but businesses alike to reduce energy usage.

“Oh that’s great, what does it do?”….. “Well you know, it helps companies cut cost and cut their energy usage and SAVE THE WORLD”.

While these products are nothing less than great – the market of climate change technology though a relatively new sector – is becoming increasingly competitive.

This week’s Eco Ventures I took a look at a company called Dassault Systemes.

The firm basically provides programs so that firms can visualize in 3D the impact of a particular design in a particular area.

For example in an area prone to earth quakes – the program can formulate what impact a quake would have on a particular building and so on.

Such 3D programs also come in handy in assessing the overall start to finish on a project before a spade has even been sunk to soil.

And the fact that the firm is now accounting 20% of its revenues from the architecture, and construction sector speaks volumes with regard to changing demand.

However I wonder. With all these programs and gadgets, what impact they will really have – at the end of the day it’s down to the policy makers to set in regulation to push companies in the right direction.

So shall we all hold our breath for Copenhagen??

Well fortunately it doesn’t look like we will need to.

Many countries seem to be setting individual targets, so it looks like things are moving in the right direction.

Whether or not companies will pay more then just lip service to the targets is another matter I suppose.

Or are they….. Yesterday (Tuesday 17th) scientists in Paris reported that carbon emissions from fossil fuels rose 2% last year. This is an ALL TIME HIGH – some say – leaving the plant on a worst case scenario for global warming.

In the last two weeks I have covered APEC – and International Energy Week (Singapore) and the sentiment does seem positive – optimistic – but in agreement that no conclusion will be reached in Copenhagen.

Ok, so I spoke with some experts on the Copenhagen Climate Change council this week.

And I want to leave you with interesting thought. That yes – while all I spoke to agree that the consequences of climate change will be catastrophic if we do nothing – increasing temperatures may cause more heat deaths, but will also prevent five times as many cold deaths by 2050.

This weeks eco ventures looks at green Green Data centres as part of sustainable green infocom technology efforts.

Did you know that green ICT takes up about 2% of global energy usage.

While 2% may not sound like much.

But just as Singapore is a small country which can make a big impact globally, that 2% could be significant.

And this can be especially true for the infocom technology sector when you look at how many industries it affects.

Here in Singapore there have been a number of announcements on companies looking to go green with their ICT needs.

For example Fujitsu’s announcement earlier in the year to open a green Data Centre – which is targeting to cut energy usage by 30% in comparison to traditional data centres.

And you know green ICT is getting attention when google search hits on the topic start to exceed 680 million.