OLPCO2e in 500 words

... there's JUST one last thing: OlpCO2e ...

Can OLPC get the 100$ back into vision thanks to the generation and sale of it's CO2e-Certificate potential under the "Kyoto Protocol"?

Dear OLPC-News,

thank you for giving us the opportunity to introduce OLPCO2e.

Indeed, Giulia and me have been asked by the OLPC Board of Directors via www.OlpcEu.org - CEO, Walter DE BROUWER - to set up an "Entity", that is to unlock the "Kyoto Protocol" / "CO2e-Certificate" potential for OLPC and it's spin-outs.

We gave it a preliminary name: "OLPCO2e".

Since 2005, the beginning of the "Kyoto Protocol", you know everything about the Global Climate Destabilization, society has caught up with OLPC, in the sense that OLPC gets rewarded for having put so much effort in developing

  1. a very very eco-friendly laptop
  2. targeting the least-developing countries.

What's happening ? OLPC hasn't changed, society has !

The objectives of this "Kyoto Protocol" - the popular name for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFCCC - is 3-fold:

  1. reduction and avoidance of Greenhouse Gasses, of course,
  2. whilst allowing poor countries to develop - immediately to a sustainable economy - thanks to a massive transfer of money, know-how, technologies, etc. from those who caused this Global Climate Stabilization to those who are hit by it, i.e. the developing countries, and this thanks to
  3. this "CO2e-Certificate" Emissions Trading Scheme, set up under the "Kyoto Protocol", to help combat the Global Climate Destabilization in the most cost-effective way and giving the economy a way/a tool/a mechanism, to come to grip with it.

And it has been going fast ... from a sector of 0 € in 2005, it grew to an economy 43 billion € by 2007! With the USA joining, the need for those CO2e-Certificates will rise from 67 billion in 2008 to 3.000 billion by 2020. That is 3 trillion $... on a Global GDP (= all products and services produced on Earth) of 65 Trillion $, that's nearly 5%... and part of that is for ... OLPC !

OLPC laptops, (Carbon) Money (CO2e-Certificate) printing machines ?!

Yes: the easiest to understand is of course the PhotoVoltaic-panels that are deployed with the OLPComputers. Thanks to the PV's, the 5 Watt electricity per OLPComputer, doesn't have to be produced by burning fossil fuels anymore and the equivalent amount of CO2e-gasses that are avoided from being released into our atmosphere, OLPC can get it in CO2e Certificates.

A bit more difficult, but logical if you think of it: energy efficiency increase. Imagine you can increase the efficiency of a CO2e-emitting coal/gas electricity production plant ... that's even better ... you don't even have to produce large wind-turbines, PV-farms etc. in the first place, avoiding the CO2e-production and environmental damaged caused by that.

Now, if the fathers and mothers, are so smart to listen to good advise - from you and OLPC of course :) - and opt for super energy efficient OLCP-laptops instead of rich-country-I-don't-care-how-much-electricity-cost-because-I-can-afford-it-laptops, shouldn't they be rewarded for that smarter, more sustainable choice? Answer: possibly yes .. under the Kyoto Protocol, there is a methodology indicating a formula and procedure and way of thinking for Energy Efficiency projects to calculate the CO2e-Certificates they can claim. And how about for the trees they do not cut because everybody can read books on the OLPC eBook? And the ICT-sector is being pushed under the Kyoto Protocol, we should go lobbying there, who wants to join us in that, ... and ... and ... and ...

We promised to keep this first text short, but, we're sure that if you give yourself a bit of time and you start coming to grips with all this, you'll agree this is massive ...

So, Giulia and I, invite you herewith to participate in online and real-world intro-session on the topic. So you can learn more and tellus what you think over what impact this might have on OLPC, yourselves and how to take it from there; maybe you know people with relevant skills, or how to get the OLPC community involved, etc.

Info: www.wiki.laptop.org and search OLPCO2e

Looking forward meeting you,

for OLPCO2e,

Sven AERTS and Giulia D'AMICO

To be challenged

Management Council for OLPCO2e

File:Http://www.olpceu.org/content/aboutus/img staff/sven.jpg File:Http://www.olpceu.org/content/aboutus/img staff/giulia.jpg