Our Participation in COP15

Microsoft is providing a delegation of issue and technology experts accredited to support the UN's Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15). We are participating in a series of briefings, events, and partnerships to showcase for policymakers and other COP15 attendees the power of information technology (IT) to help address the daunting global energy and climate challenges the world faces.

Solving these challenges will require dramatic gains in energy conservation and integration of more renewable and zero-carbon energy sources into our economy. Microsoft envisions a clean energy ecosystem where information technology:

• Empowers people and organisations with software tools that help increase energy efficiency.
• Accelerates innovation and deployment of clean energy sources through research and development.
• Provides government decision makers with tools to better predict the impact of climate change through the aggregation of large amounts of scientific data as well as on-the-ground information provided from local citizens.

Our participation reflects our Policy Statement on Climate Change. That statement advocates that governments adopt market-based emissions reduction frameworks which are stable and predictable over the long-term to foster private investment in sustainable low-carbon and carbon-free energy sources and technologies. While world leaders have indicated they won't reach a final agreement in Copenhagen, we view COP15 and subsequent climate negotiations as an important opportunity to advance these frameworks on a global scale.

Below a video from Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist, Microsoft:

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