Officialdom given big sticks should wield them judiciously. Fair enough when the European Commission slaps hefty fines on the likes of Microsoft for uncompetitive business practices, but the EC’s choice of its latest whipping boy is misguided – and it has come at a bad time for European economies struggling with recession and oil-fuelled inflation.
In its new offensive, the EC is warning that the IT sector generates more CO2 than the much-maligned aviation industry.
And Big Brother is threatening tough action unless the IT industry gets its act together and curbs its carbon.
Oh yes? These bully-boys should start closer to home. Like in their own back yard: in one year alone (2006) Commission staff made 3,500 journeys from Brussels to the European Parliament’s other seats, in Strasbourg and Luxembourg. Over half of them (55%) felt it necessary to make the trip by plane. Hell-llo! Anyone there ever think of taking a train or using e-mail occasionally? It seems the only thing bigger than these bureaucrats’ carbon footprint is the bill for their travel expenses – paid for by you and me.
Anyway, what precisely is the IT sector supposed to do about its carbon emissions? There’s a limit to how much more energy-efficient processors and monitors can be made using existing technology. Next generation replacement hardware could be decades away. In the mean time, are we expected to revert to the technological Dark Age, with smaller monitors and TV screens? Must we silence our mobile phones? Switch off all our MP3 players and game consoles?
Or maybe we should all move to Brussels, where there’s so much hot air being generated that we would no longer need heaters.
Let us remind the EC that a huge industry depends on consumers buying IT hardware. Also dependent on these sales are tens of thousands of jobs in manufacturing and many more in the channel.
It’s time the European Commission stopped playing to the gallery and got to the heart of the matter. Threatening the IT sector generates instant headlines that resonate with the green brigade.
But as a way of making meaningful inroads into global carbon emissions, this new warning looks suspiciously like a case of peeing into the wind.
If the EC is serious – really serious – about tackling carbon emissions, the logical targets are road and air travel: For starters, the Brussels bureaucrats could consider using teleconferencing technology for their parliamentary sessions. Next they could focus on the vast numbers of businessmen (and journalists) who travel unnecessarily to far-flung business conferences in exotic locations (Las Vegas and Hawaii are among the favourites). This type of travel is a luxury the planet can no longer afford.
That’s where the EC ought to be wielding its big stick.
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