International Energy Statistics says Thailand ranks 23rd out of 216 countries and territories in world carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Power consumption by ICT products is responsible for 2% of global CO2 emissions, but they help other sectors to reduce energy consumption for a greener environment.

However, most governments and companies worldwide still lack awareness of the importance of ICT in alleviating global warming.

An Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report entitled "Towards Green ICT Strategies: Assessing Policies and Programmes on ICT and the Environment" found 87% of business efforts for green information technology (IT) incorporate the use of energy-saving ICT products.

The other 13% entails such IT practices such as videoconferencing to reduce transportation needs and installing automatic building systems to reduce energy consumption.

For the government sector, 75% of the efforts involve incorporating green ICT products and 25% on greening via information technology.

Another report _ "The Potential Global CO2 Reductions from ICT Use", by Ecofys in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund _ listed 10 ICT measures that could reduce CO2 emissions by one billion tonnes, equal to more than a quarter of the EU's total annual emissions.

These measures are smart city planning, smart buildings, smart appliances or smart occupancy control, dematerialisation services, smart industry, i-optimisation, smart grids, integrated renewable solutions, smart work and intelligent transport.

"Thailand can play an important role in reducing regional CO2 emissions, particularly setting ICT policies in agriculture, health care and construction to make those sectors reduce their carbon footprint," said Masaki Kajiyama, the president of Fujitsu Systems Business (Thailand), a Japan-based IT provider.

He said the Japanese government is using ICT policy to conserve biodiversity.

For example, the government provided incentives to those who grow cedar trees in the forest because it generates less CO2 than cypress.

The government now uses spectral analysis instead of sending officials to check tree status, leading to a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions, said Mr Kajiyama.

He said farmers can use satellite images in conjunction with protein analysis software for the daily monitoring of plant growth without the need for field inspectors to drive trucks out into the field to evaluate the state of the plants.

Such a satellite system could help reduce CO2 emissions by 98%. The images can also show results in different colours, representing the different stages of a plant.

"We plan to offer this service through a cloud-based computing model in the near future," said Mr Kajiyama.

"Farmers will no longer need to invest in any equipment. With only a mobile phone, they can receive and display the results of plant growth analysis."

He said using ICT to collect data for use in knowledge management not only helps to reduce efforts and errors for farmers but also indirectly benefits the environment.

For instance, an orange planter can input data on the growing behaviour of a specific tree through a smartphone, while a database will store the details along with mapping based on sensor data covering soil quality and weather conditions.

"This could also become a knowledge base for growing a particular plant so that farmers would not need to explain anything in detail. New farmers can reduce trial and error time," said Mr Kajiyama.

In the healthcare industry, local hospitals take 300,000 X-rays each year. A digital system would reduce the space needed to keep X-rays and the quantity of film used by 21%.

The use of electronic charts in health care also helps to reduce the industry's carbon footprint.

Fujitsu is now researching renewable energy sources, specifically solar power for electricity generation and keeping the power on its own micro grid for distribution on demand.

"At Fujitsu, we now have centralised control of energy use at all 100 branch offices in Japan. After our devastating earthquake and tsunami, we applied centralised energy management to control electricity use more efficiently amid government concerns over energy shortages," said Mr Kajiyama.

He said companies can apply a smart metering system to collect power consumption data on each electronic device in a building while using sensors to turn the devices on or off.

With smart metering in residential areas, real time data of household power consumption can help capacity planning for power grids.

Mr Kajiyama said Fujitsu's Thai unit is in talks with several companies about reducing power consumption and plans to introduce four green ICT projects next year.

"Tax incentives for reducing CO2 emissions are an important factor in promoting this ICT policy," Mr Kajiyama added.