Written by: Sonja Colford
Artificial intelligence has already proven transformative in the modern world, with applications ranging from content creation to automation of manual labour. In this same regard, it will have endless implications for the energy transition. In the context of the clean energy movement, where empirical data is key, the ability of AI to filtrate mass amounts of data in a fraction of the time it takes humans gives it the potential to become a pivotal tool in creating efficient energy solutions. While it is recognised that AI cannot tackle the energy crisis on its own, many companies and organisations around the world are harnessing what AI can provide in terms of strategic and logistical analysis to bolster their own sustainability efforts. This combined effort synthesises into an energy movement fueled by the innovation of a human mind and amplified by that of an artificial one.
Just as AI brings about exponential advantages, however, there exist several caveats to its success – the possibility of increased process efficiency to simply lead to increased production (Gold, 2021), the emissions ironically produced by the AI systems themselves (Coleman, 2023), as well as the ethical conundrum AI presents and its regulation through policy (Coleman, 2023). Overall, while AI possesses the incredibly valuable function of surpassing limited human ability, it comes at a cost.
DATA IN THE DIGITAL AGE
The main selling point of AI, even in spaces other than the climate crisis, is its immense capacity for data storage and comprehension. With technology giants like Microsoft and Google having recognised and harnessed the power of AI since its early stages, employing it for monotonous tasks like information retrieval and image processing, its expansion into the energy sphere was surely highly anticipated (Bass, Knight, & West, 2023). Of course, Artificial Intelligence itself cannot physically build machines like wind turbines or nuclear fusion reactors. It cannot set into motion groundbreaking legislation that would change the global outlook on climate change for good. And although this may change in the future with the advent of humanoid robots and other, more advanced AI systems, for now, these tasks are still up to humans. Instead, AI can provide invaluable and unprecedented data analysis on existing structures to inform activists, agencies, and companies where to direct their efforts in order to maximise results (Gold, 2021). And, for companies with profit-driven clients – especially in the fossil fuel industry – such data analysis can accurately forecast the most optimal places and times to either harvest or sell carbon, creating an incentive-based carbon credit market, backed by the credibility of AI’s raw data (Gold, 2021).
The carbon credit marketplace is not the only application of AI’s data power (Masterson, 2024). Its ability to handle massive amounts of data transcends human capabilities by analysing and pinpointing the most problematic areas. Current – and comparatively feeble – climate activism tactics like using trawlers and aeroplanes to clean ocean plastic, manual iceberg mapping, and painstaking tree plantation are easily streamlined by AI. The Ocean Cleanup, an organisation from the Netherlands, has employed AI in generating intricate maps of ocean debris so that it can be gathered and extracted more effectively. Scientists in the UK have created an AI-based satellite mapping system that quickly and accurately displays Antarctic icebergs, revolutionising the previously laborious task of iceberg identification among white clouds and sea ice. 2021 Index Project award-winners, Canadian company Flash Forest, have created drone technology to fly over what AI has determined to be the most fertile planting locations, dropping 100,000 seeds per day (Flash Forest, n.d.). Extensive data processing and analysis is the main asset of AI when it comes to targeting the energy crisis.
AN INTERNATIONAL PROJECT
AI is a unique tool because of its universality (Gold, 2021). Not every company or organisation has the resources to build startups boasting new and innovative technology, and as AI becomes increasingly accessible to a wide range of users, it is being leveraged across the board. And more importantly, across the world. London company Carbon Re uses AI-based analytics to recommend the cleanest solutions to cement- and steel-making clients. California company SilviaTerra is a pioneer in utilising AI to create advanced, incentive-based carbon markets, allowing “landowners to state the price at which they would be willing to defer [carbon] harvests for a single year, creating verifiable carbon credits that are then sold to firms looking to offset their emissions”, effectively monetizing abstinence from carbon pollution.
Scotland’s Space Intelligence has mapped over one million hectares of land with AI in search of deforestation (Masterson, 2024). Another AI-based London startup, Greyparrot, found 86 tonnes of material – 32 billion total waste items – in 2022 alone, that could have been recycled, but were instead sent to a landfill (Masterson, 2024). Sipremo, of São Paulo, Brazil, addresses issues of environmental inequity by forecasting climate disasters with AI and issuing subsequent warnings to communities who would otherwise be ill-prepared (Masterson, 2024). Globally-recognised company Eugenie.ai helps industrial firms reduce emissions through AI-based tracking (Eugenie.ai).
Despite this, the clear motives of profit-maximising corporations to use AI leaves room for cynicism; how can the world move in a truly sustainable trajectory if all players are acting in their own interest? However, exemplifying altruism in the use of AI is Microsoft’s recent collaboration with the government of Canada to “share expertise and use cloud, data and AI services to develop a platform for national and global science cooperation” (Government of Canada Collaborates With Microsoft To Support Climate Action Research, 2021). In this same spirit, the UN’s new AI Advisory Body, and numerous environmental agencies have initiated several projects, one of which being the IKI Project, using AI to assist vulnerable communities in Burundi, Chad, and Sudan in the face of the climate crisis (IKI Project - An International Climate Initiative - EECentre, 2019). AI can be used to establish a competitive marketplace, or, oppositely, a community of sharing and collaboration for the greater good.
THE “SUPERCHARGE”
In spite of the diversity of initiatives, the international fight against climate change will become a largely synthesised undertaking, driven by an adaptability to the promises of AI. In a remark by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, he notes that the development of AI can “supercharge climate action” (AI for Climate Action: Technology Mechanism Supports Transformational Climate Solutions, 2023). Countless independent efforts characterise the climate movement, and not even international organisations like the UN or subset IPCC can claim to coalesce the variety of efforts around the globe. The power of AI as a tool truly does “supercharge” the climate movement by enhancing each effort exponentially, thus creating a formidable human counterforce against the climate crisis.
AI’S SHORTCOMINGS: PUTTING THE ARTIFICIAL IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AI is not all good, however. Exploiting AI’s efficiency abilities can be all too tempting for profit-based firms. In a market where emission reduction is remunerated, lowered carbon emissions means a lower cost of production, which, for many companies, means an increase in production, completely offsetting any benefits offered by AI in the first place (Gold, 2021). AI is not inherently to blame in this scenario; it simply creates the conditions for human greed to take control. In addition, a more concrete technological issue is presented by the massive amounts of power needed to run AI systems – Chat GPT-3 produced approximately 500 tons of CO2! – and the fact that this energy consumption is not often counterbalanced by the system’s benefits (Coleman, 2023). Finally, a more political and legislative challenge arises in that those with influence in the AI sphere are called on to institute ethical values which will promote climate efforts rather than short-circuit them (Coleman, 2023). This standard, however, is not always upheld. Given these significant drawbacks to the use of artificial intelligence, it becomes increasingly complicated to navigate. The degree to which AI’s value decreases is dependent on many factors, some extricable and others inextricable from the evolving and complex landscape of politics, economics, and the environment. The slippery slope on the other side of the peak, laden with greed and over-production, presents a predicament large enough to suggest that Artificial Intelligence may be just that – an artificial climate solution prone to exploitation and underminement.
SYMBIOTE OR PARASITE?
As the power of AI ramps up in other spheres, its use in the fight against climate change expands similarly, if only for the simple fact that climate change is a universally threatening issue. With its capacity for mass data filtration, the combined international efforts characterising the movement, and the “supercharge” uniting various initiatives, AI offers a viable and promising path forward. However, the dark side of AI, distorted by incentives for profit and power, as well as the large environmental toll of AI systems, put forth a compelling counterargument. The question of whether AI’s relationship to the climate is symbiotic or parasitic therefore is based on one’s own personal assessment and value system. The interplay of AI and the environment is a complicated balancing act of innovative potential and ethical responsibility, seldom able to fulfil both at once.
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References:
AI for Climate Action: Technology Mechanism supports transformational climate solutions. (2023, November 3). UNFCCC. https://unfccc.int/news/ai-for-climate-action-technology-mechanism-supports-transformational-climate-solutions
Bass, D., Knight, W., West, S. M. (2023, June 6). The Microsoft-Google AI war. NPR Illinois. https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-06-06/the-microsoft-google-ai-war
Coleman, J. (2023, December 7). AI's Climate Impact Goes beyond Its Emissions. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ais-climate-impact-goes-beyond-its-emissions
Explainer: How AI helps combat climate change. (2023, November 3). UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/11/1143187
Flash Forest. The Index Project. https://theindexproject.org/post/flash-forest-home
Gold, M. (2021, May 17). Green Intelligence - AI could boost efforts to fight climate change. Economist Impact. https://impact.economist.com/perspectives/sustainability/green-intelligence-ai-could-boost-efforts-fight-climate-change?utm_medium=cpc.adword.pd&utm_source=google&ppccampaignID=18798097116&ppcadID=&utm_campaign=a.22brand_pmax&utm_content=conversion.direct-
Government of Canada Collaborates With Microsoft To Support Climate Action Research. (2021, March 29). Cision. https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/government-of-canada-collaborates-with-microsoft-to-support-climate-action-research-835884620.html
IKI Project - An International Climate Initiative - EECentre. (2019, May 1). Environmental Emergencies Centre. https://eecentre.org/2019/05/01/iki-project
Masterson, V. (2024, February 12). 9 ways AI is being deployed to fight climate change. The World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/02/ai-combat-climate-change/
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