Government to tackle PC pollution

The Government has set up a task force in order to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the production, operation and disposal of computers.

Recently computers and other IT equipment have been blamed for contributing as much to global warming as the airline industry. It is thought to generate 35m tonnes of harmful CO2 gas each year.

So far only rough proposals have been outlined but it is expected that the main responsibility of the task force, which is being led by Manchester City Council, will be to create a "green PC" service that will allow individual PCs to be replaced with devices that use 98 per cent less energy.

People will be able to access core applications such as office packages, email, and internet surfing housed in data centres around the country using what are known as thin client devices.

The data centres will also use concentrated energy efficiency measures such as non-fossil fuel power. It is believed that as well as saving energy such devices will save up to three-quarters of the resources needed to manufacture computers.

Piloting of the new green PC will begin in early 2008, with the aim of being rolled out for use in late 2009.