Three ways in which AI can help in the race to net zero

Far too often, talks on the relationship between AI and sustainability start and end with remarks about the carbon-intensity of AI algorithms. This is certainly a challenge: discussions about ways to reduce the carbon footprint of algorithms are gaining traction in the AI community. However, we should not forget that machines can also be a crucial ally in the fight against climate change.?

We have identified three ways in which the rise of machine learning and deep learning algorithms can be a huge driving force for the climate transition.?

Disclaimer: this list is by no means comprehensive and does not go into detail about specific industry applications of AI technologies (watch this space!).?

1 - The fight against climate change is a matter of time. AI can save us some.?

If we want to be serious about the climate transition, we should start by looking at our watch. There are some clear deadlines, especially for curtailing global emissions. The Paris Agreement stressed that, to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees, we should curb emissions by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. While 2050 might sound far off, it really is not much time considering we need to transition the entire economy to sustainable practices.?

By now, it should be obvious: whatever the problem might be, AI can make its resolution faster and leaner. A pre-trained natural language processing algorithm can go through thousands of sustainability regulatory requirements and corporate disclosures in minutes, compared to the days or weeks that a human might need, without loss of precision. Contrary to a common myth: AI will most likely not put lawyers out of business, but rather augment their work and enable them to focus on what really matters.?

2 - AI can help us keep track of change.?

This might not be breaking news, but climate change is complex. With a new IPCC report being published basically every year, learning in this area seems to never be completely over. If this wasn’t enough - and as sustainability specialists may be well aware of - ESG regulations and frameworks are shapeshifters. To give you an idea, we have recently published a whitepaper that includes details about the EU Taxonomy reporting regulations alone. Spoiler: a lot can happen in just four years.?

The adoption of AI pushes us to rethink our approach to change. By extracting? precise climate-related data through NLP, which can in turn be used to train and deploy increasingly sophisticated algorithms, we can build robust interconnected datasets that can be easily stored, shared and expanded. This allows us not to start from scratch each time that a new policy, regulation or standard is released.?

3 - AI encourages a collaborative approach to the problem.?

Tackling climate change is supposed to be a collective effort. Building a cutting-edge and unique solution to target a tiny niche might be fun and exciting, but how large can the final impact be expected to be?

Pre-trained models are the backbone of most commercialized AI-powered solutions. Thanks to them, we need not reinvent the wheel each and every time. They not only are greatly scalable and find application to a vast class of similar problems, but they also save developers precious time and brainpower, while allowing them to communicate their results efficiently and precisely - across different companies, or even industries.?

Moreover, AI technologies have seen an incredibly vibrant and engaged community flourishing around them. In recent years, some of these communities have started focusing specifically on climate change and related environmental topics: an example beyond many is the ClimateChange AI community.?

Summing up:

Climate change has been dubbed the greatest challenge of the 21st century. Tackling it will seriously test our ability to come up with solutions that are 1) fast 2) adaptive and 3) scalable.?

Artificial Intelligence can be of tremendous support in all three of these areas. Finding ways to fully exploit its potential - while also starting to trust it a bit more - is really up to us.?

At Briink, we are building our own AI-powered solution to augment sustainable finance reporting. Get in touch to learn more.