ITU

Recommendation ITU-T L.1031 describes a three-step approach to address the e-waste reduction target of the Connect 2020 Agenda. These steps consist of guidance on developing an e-waste inventory, approaches to design e-waste prevention and reduction programs, and the supportive measures required for successfully implementing the Connect 2020 e-waste target.

This Recommendation is intended to be utilized by relevant stakeholders to take their first step in addressing Target 3.2 of the Connect 2020 Agenda that is to reduce waste by 50% by 2020.

This Recommendation offers a description of the extended producer responsibility (EPR) system in dealing with e-waste. It expands on the different existing forms of EPR globally, not only in theoretical terms, but also with a practical view on their feasibility, challenges and pre-requisites. It presents the definition of the EPR system, in addition to the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders, the different types of EPR as well as how and why they could be used in certain contexts and not in others. The funding mechanism behind every mode and the organizational structure expected to be in place are also presented. The Recommendation concludes with many best practices from the international arena including developed, developing and emerging economies, as well as the challenges faced in some cases.

Recommendation ITU-T L.1032 is part of a series of ITU-T Recommendations that considers requirements for recyclers of waste information and communication technology (ICT). This Recommendation addresses, in particular, the informal sector that is involved in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) collection and dismantling.

This Recommendations must be read in conjunction with national legislation and technical requirements for WEEE recyclers at the national level. A number of standards on WEEE, related to the present series of Recommendations, are published on the ITU-T website at: https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Pages/default.aspx .

Updates on the regional and international conventions and legislation presented can be found at: www.Basel.int (for the Basel Convention), also at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/shipments/legis.htm (for the EU waste shipment regulations), and at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/index_en.htm (for the EU WEEE directive).

In addition, there are a number of mandatory and voluntary standards on the treatment conditions for workers and the environment that can be used as guidelines to improve national legislation and the quality of recycling where such standards are yet to be implemented.

Recommendation ITU-T L.1100 provides information on the recycling procedures of rare metals in information and communication technology (ICT) goods. It also defines a communication format for providing recycling information of rare metals contained in ICT goods.

Recommendation ITU-T L.1023 outlines an assessment method for circularity scoring of information and communication technology (ICT) goods.
The assessment method consists of three steps:
1) Setting the relevance and applicability (R) of each criterion for circular product design (CCPD) for the ICT goods at hand,
2) Assess the margin of improvement (MI) of each criterion,
3) Calculate the circularity score (score) from 0 to 100% for the ICT good at hand for all three circular design guideline groups (CDGGs). This includes:
– Using a predefined value matrix to identify the % score from 0 to 100 for each cobination of R×MI.
– Average the included criteria for the ICT good at hand separately for all three groups: product durability, ability to recycle, repair, reuse, and upgrade from equipment and manufacturer level.

This Recommendation suggests approaches of circular economy (CE) for information and communication technology (ICT) goods and networks. It focuses particularly on the next steps in improving circularity in the operators′ supply chain.

The Recommendation provides a guide on how operators could work with their supply chain to improve CE aspects for ICT goods and networks but it does not provide metrics. The objective of the guide is to provide options to improve circularity and to enable operators and their suppliers to create business models for the promotion of circular networks for an optimum solution that uses all the loops of circularity - from sharing to recycling.

A key characteristic of existing and emerging networks is the use of a smart transport including its softwarization/virtualization for supporting  applications and services with varied QoS/QoE requirements, all of which must be supported by this smart transport. Appropriate mechanisms are needed to achieve the required levels of QoS/QoE, especially for applications that are latency- and loss-sensitive. Some applications may also require a large amount of bandwidth and strict quality assurance, which makes the support for QoS/QoE challenging, in particular under a softwarized/virtualised network environment.

 

The Focus Group, intends to study the capabilities of networks for the year 2030 and beyond, when it is expected to support novel forward-looking scenarios, such as holographic type communications, extremely fast response in critical situations and high-precision communication demands of emerging market verticals. The study aims to answer specific questions on what kinds of network architecture and the enabling mechanisms are suitable for such novel scenarios.

A Focus Group on Vehicular Multimedia (FG-VM) has been established to identify the need for new vehicular multimedia standards based on space and terrestrial networks integration. The study will analyze and identify gaps in the vehicular multimedia standardization landscape and eventually draft technical reports and specifications covering, among others, vehicular multimedia use cases, requirements, applications, interfaces, protocols, architectures, and security, leveraging from previous work done by ITU in this field. See more details in the FG-VM terms of reference below.

The ITU/WHO Focus Group on artificial intelligence for health (FG-AI4H) works in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) to establish a standardized assessment framework for the evaluation of AI-based methods for health, diagnosis, triage or treatment decisions. Participation in the FG-AI4H is free of charge and open to all. The group was established by ITU-T Study Group 16 at its meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 9-20 July 2018.

ITU-T Focus Group on "Environmental Efficiency for Artificial Intelligence and other Emerging Technologies" (FG-AI4EE) was established by ITU-T Study Group 5 at its meeting in Geneva on 22 May 2019.

FG-AI4EE will identify the standardization needs to develop a sustainable approach to AI and other emerging technologies including automation, augmented reality, virtual reality, extended reality, smart manufacturing, industry 5.0, cloud/edge computing, nanotechnology, 5G, among others. The focus group will develop technical reports and technical specifications to address the environmental efficiency, as well as water and energy consumption of emerging technologies, and provide guidance to stakeholders on how to operate these technologies in a more environmentally efficient manner to meet the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.