AVEVA at COP29: How Tech and AI are driving decarbonization

At COP29, our Chief Sustainability Officer Lisa Wee hosted a panel at the UK Pavilion.

Rachel McEwen, Rodolphe d'Arjuzon, Hanne Rolén and Matt T. spoke about how industry, government and society must collaborate to meet global Net Zero goals, and what actions are necessary.

The discussion explored how digital solutions and AI can drive the transition to a Net Zero industrial economy.

The panel touched on topics including the importance of reducing carbon in energy sources, the intensity of resources required to run AI, the progress being made in carbon capture technology, and the importance of collaboration.

Rachel McEwen , SSE plc -"Of all the sectors of the economy, electricity has to get to zero first. If we take every gram of carbon dioxide out of electricity, then what you've got is a low carbon energy source which helps to decarbonise almost everything else"

Rodolphe d'Arjuzon , Verdantix - "[AI] is driving a huge amount of energy demand... my hope is we end up in a world where we have very large research and development models, and a race to compactify some of the models - how do I give you 80% of the performance, but it runs on your laptop?"

Hanne Rolén , SLB Capturi - "We're seeing progress in this area where we're deploying carbon capture... it's not a new technology. It's a technology we've developed for decades, but what has been lacking, has been the scaling of it."

Matt T, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero -"There's a huge amount of potential in this space. We are very interested in working with countries on the way that AI can be used for a range of different areas. There's a new taskforce that's being setup on AI which a number of countries and other partners are going to work together on, exploring the role that AI can play in energy systems."

Lisa Wee , AVEVA - "What's given me the most optimism is the ambition, but also the fact that businesses remain really committed. The businesses that are here, are here to say that it's because we believe it's an imperative, and the transition is happening, and we are continuing to do the business of transition."

Thank you to our speakers, you can watch the panel in full here.