Photo by Alex E. Proimos, CC BY 2.0.
Committee 4 has agreed a new Resolution on e-waste, charging ITU to strengthen its activities in this arena and to assist ITU Member States in instituting policy frameworks that limit e-waste’s negative environmental effects.
The Resolution arrives against a backdrop of a rapidly progressing ICT industry, increasing consumption of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and a marked increase in e-waste, which, as a result of global mismanagement, has led to negative environmental and health effects, particularly in developing countries.
Pending final WTSA-12 Plenary approval, “The role of telecommunications/ICT in handling and controlling e-waste from telecommunications/ICT equipment and methods of treating it” instructs the Director of TSB, Malcolm Johnson, to collaborate with Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, to advance ITU’s on-going activities in this regard, to assist developing countries in their assessment of e-waste challenges, and to lead global efforts combatting and raising awareness around e-waste’s adverse effects.
The Resolution calls on ITU-T Study Group 5 (Environment and Climate Change) to document and develop best-practice models of handling, controlling, treating and recycling e-waste, and to reflect the resulting findings in international standards (ITU-T Recommendations). SG 5 is in addition instructed to study the e-waste impacts resulting from developed countries’ exports of used telecommunications/ICT equipment to developing nations.
More on ITU-T and climate change here…
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