• WP leader: Internet for Sustainability (Bart Lannoo)
• JRA8 Wiki

This working group addresses the investigation, from a multi-disciplinary angle, of how the Future Internet could help to relieve the main problems affecting sustainability at planetary scale, including Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy production, sustainable lifestyles, and the related problem of climate change. Based on the vast research efforts to model our climate, managed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it has become clear that GHG emissions need to be drastically diminished during the coming decades to avoid a climate change catastrophe. The public and societal interest is incontestable, and many initiatives and ambitious goals are arising, such as the European 20-20-20 objective: increase of energy efficiency by 20%, increase of renewable energy sources by 20%, and reduction of CO2 emissions by 20%. This emergency obviously also has fuelled research activities in various domains of society, trying to design new alternatives to reduce the GHG emissions. One of these sectors is Information and Communication Technology (ICT), including the Internet itself and a wide variety of network terminal devices such as desktop and laptop PCs, servers in data centres, TV screens, and so on. This JRA will take stock of existing activities in the field, promote coordination and stimulate synergies between them, and complement them with research in specific areas which are seen as key for influencing the definition of future Internet specifications at architectural, technological and infrastructural levels.