Why would a carbon tax be good for the IT industry?

It may seem like there is no direct correlation between IT and a carbon tax. But there is. If you refer to my article on how IT systems contribute to the greenhouse effect as much as the aviation industry, you will start to realise that IT is a big contributor to the biggest single global issue of our times.

So, why is a carbon tax a good thing for our industry?

Really, it’s the same reason that applies for all industries. Certainly there will be some resistance in the short-term as it will push prices higher; but, in the medium- to long-term, it will be a good thing because it will drive innovation. Of course, innovation means better systems and reduced impact on our planet.

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon at the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce. During this luncheon, Professor Jacob Karni of the Weizmann Institute of Science presented a technology that has been proven in the laboratory to reuse emissions from coal-fired furnaces as a source of additional energy – converting Co2 into CO for fuel and oxygen to aid combustion via a process that is driven by solar energy.

Despite being a mechanical engineer (who got into IT off the back of computational fluid dynamics modeling coal-fired furnaces), I lack the details to explain how this works. But, what I can see is that there are solutions in the early stages of development that are not getting developed due to a lack of interest and investment.

Back when I was doing computational modeling of 3D data, computer speed and processing power were limiting the ability to complete design modifications of the furnaces to improve efficiency. Delivering on new solutions will surely require further advancements in IT capabilities too.

So, if we look forward to a time when there is a price on carbon in Australia, I can see that this will drive investment in reducing carbon emissions – which is a problem faced by every economy in the world. This may be the opportunity Australia needs to make use of its established education system, in conjunction with funding from private enterprise, to produce a new generation of experts to go out into the world and develop and deploy solutions to this problem.

It is not until private enterprise has a reason to invest that we as a country will be part of the global team working on solving the problem. In turn, we will have an opportunity to reduce the impact at a generation-level, which is an engineering problem that will drive IT. We will also have the opportunity to work on reducing power consumption by looking at each of our IT devices, and how they can be designed and used to need less power, generate less heat and therefore require less cooling.

All told, having the carbon tax may well power our economy on a global scale for many years, and that would be a great thing for the IT industry and many others.

David Markus is the founder of Combo – the IT services company that ensures IT is never an impediment to growth. We win awards for the service we offer, so if your IT environment is slowing you down, contact Combo on 1300 726 626 to organise a complimentary consultation with David.