THE Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has set aside S$30 million to push for research and innovation in green computing, it announced on Wednesday (Jan 24).

Under the effort, called the Green Computing Funding Initiative (GCFI), researchers from institutes of higher learning can collaborate with industry players to maximise the energy efficiency of computing infrastructure and software.

IMDA will call for proposals from researchers and the industry this year, focusing on use cases unmet by commercial solutions.

The GCFI is part of broader efforts by the Singapore government to decarbonise the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. This comes as the public sector aims to achieve net-zero emissions by around 2045.

“While ICT sector emissions form a relatively small part of global emissions, they could grow if not managed well,” IMDA said in a joint press release with the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), which oversees the public sector’s digitalisation.

Digital infrastructure and applications presently contribute to between 1.8 per cent and 4 per cent of global emissions, according to the World Bank. But with growing digitalisation, the ICT sector could account for as much as 14 per cent of carbon emissions by 2040.

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Under another initiative by IMDA, also announced on Wednesday, industry partners will participate in software trials to learn how to develop green software and reduce energy use and IT costs.

Participants include cloud provider Amazon Web Services, IT company NCS, Chinese fintech player Ant Group, and the Singapore Institute of Technology. IMDA will use data and insights from the trials to create industry guidelines on developing green software.

Meanwhile, GovTech plans to work more closely with industry players to manage the government’s digital carbon footprint, through partnerships that develop best practices and solutions.

GovTech has stepped up efforts to make the government’s ICT usage sustainable, such as by consolidating government data centres. To date, 70 per cent of eligible government systems have been moved to the cloud.

“While good progress has been made in greening the public sector’s digital emissions through these initiatives, GovTech recognises that broader inclusion of the ecosystem is needed to scale the government’s efforts and make a larger impact,” the press release stated.