Two months ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, the world body's telecoms arm urged governments and companies to use information technology to fight global warming.
"Information technologies contribute two to three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But they can also reduce emissions in other sectors by at least 15 per cent," said Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary-General, at a telecoms industry event in Geneva.
"This means they can be significant in our fight against climate change," he added.
One of the most obvious uses for information technology is video conferencing, which allows people to attend meetings without travelling, thus reducing their carbon footprint.
"When we consider that every week there are international conferences involving thousands of participants, virtual events would have a huge impact on emissions," Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardisation Bureau said.
The International Telecommunication Union is one of the specialised agencies of the United Nations and is lobbying Copenhagen negotiators to get more mention of ICT in the texts being prepared.
"It's a struggle just to get ICT mentioned," Mr Johnson said.
But there's more to what is dubbed green ICT than virtual meetings.
Indian network technology firm VNL for example focuses on building cheap solar-powered GSM base stations in rural areas in emerging markets like India.
So far, they have delivered the first of 100 base stations but VNL sees major growth ahead.
"By the end of this year we will be on three continents," VNL chairman Rajiv Mehrotra told Reuters in an interview.
Ban called on chief executives to ensure government officials understood how ICT could address the climate threat and "usher in a new green economy".
He said text messages are being used as new tool to help farmers in Africa. Mobile phone companies and other partners had installed 5,000 new weather stations across Africa.
"The weather stations will monitor the impact of climate change. When there is news, we will be able to transmit it immediately to farmers' mobile phones. We hope to reach as many African farmers as possible - because seven out of 10 Africans rely on farming to survive," Ban said.
Laina Raveendran Greene, CEO of environmental tech consultancy GetIt said: "Going green is about getting rid of inefficiencies and that makes business sense."