Role of information technology in sustainability development

Sustainable development is one of the most significant societal challenges of the 21st century. One global trend with significant implications for sustainable development is the extraordinarily rapid development and application of information technology (IT), often referred to as the “IT revolution.” Sustainable development relies on technological change to achieve its aims but will governments take the tough steps that are required to force radical technological innovation rather than the technological fixes that have been evident to date? Such measures would require a long-term view and a preparedness to bear short-term economic costs while industry readjusts. Information Technologies models the reality in such a way that information on it can be efficiently found and transported to the decision makers in a useful, readable form. There is still a need of standardization of nomenclatures, interchange formats and languages in order to accelerate the communicability of information so it can be useful for any decision maker or for the public. But this standardization or modelling process increase the errors in interpreting the reality, which can lead to unsustainable decisions. However, the growing velocity of communication exchanges and the power of recent information technologies will probably reduce the standardization needs in time and allow a communication of less biased information that is more accurate for a better decision making process.