Scientists estimate that humanity has ten years remaining to solve the unprecedented global environmental challenges it faces. Business as usual in the global economy is clearly not working – and we need to find ways to make exponential progress in addressing environmental challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution management. Big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation can play important roles to ensure environmental sustainability and sustainable development.
To address the important role AI based solutions are playing to ensure environmental sustainability, UNESCO, in collaboration with UNEP, StartUp Inside, and Microsoft, organized a global virtual conference dedicated to the theme of AI for the Planet, on 16 February. The conference launched a series of monthly dialogues “Tuesdays Together for the Planet” throughout 2021 dedicated to highlighting AI applications in domains related to sustainable development and the preservation of our planet. Over 2200 people worldwide from more than 110 countries joined the digital event.
Humanity has ten years. With the right AI, that’s actually enough time.
Gavin shared his work on a joint initiative of nine NGOs and companies, which uses AI and remote sensing technology to improve global greenhouse gas emissions monitoring.
In his opening remarks, Mr Xing Qu, Deputy Director-General of UNESCO, highlighted the ethical and democratic consequences of biased AI, and underlined the important contributions of UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, which is currently in development.
AI must also be responsible with regards to the environment. That is why the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence encourages States to assess its impact in terms of carbon footprint, energy consumption and extraction of raw materials.
In her opening remarks, Ms Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme underlined three ways in which AI can be used to support sustainability. Namely, AI can make sense of ecological complexity and help monitor the global environment. It can help consumers to adapt to more sustainable living and help in adapting their consumer behaviour. Finally, AI can help to reduce the environmental footprint and to foster circularity.
Reinforced public private sector partnerships are key to ensuring AI based solutions to preserve the planet are developed and scaled. In her keynote Shelley McKinley, Vice President of Microsoft Technology and Corporate Responsibility, stressed the efforts the private sector is making to mitigate climate change and to face the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. Microsoft highlighted its launch of the AI for Earth program, which provides funds for game changing innovation which are open source.
The conference also highlighted innovative projects implemented by UNESCO that are harnessing artificial intelligence for sustainable development. In Serbia, UNESCO’s centre on “Water for Sustainable Development and Adaptation to Climate Change” is using AI in statistical modelling, to identify areas where water resource management can be improved. UNESCO is also using artificial intelligence to build community resilience to natural disasters in Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
During the launch event, 20 experts and AI pioneers shared their vision and AI-powered solutions in three panels addressing the mitigation of climate change, ensuring nature and biodiversity conservation, and the promotion of pollution and waste management. A common theme was the need to reinforce international collaboration in this field; “the future of the planet will be determined on the strength of our partnerships, including between humans and machines” highlighted Anne Bowser, Director of Innovation at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
In his closing keynote, Yoshua Bengio, winner of the Turing Award in 2019, also known as "The Nobel Prize of Computing” and a strong supporter of AI commons and Open Science, emphasized the need to ensure open access to AI-based innovation. In order to move forward, Bengio recommended creating an ecosystem and social incentives for innovation based on AI, empowering scientists and the private sector to work together for the global benefit of society.
The monthly dialogues “Tuesdays Together for the Planet“ bring together world’s best experts and AI pioneers to share concrete use cases, identify best practices, celebrate successes and inspire further actions in this dynamic field.
The next “Tuesdays Together for the Planet event” will occur at 2 p.m. CET on 16 March, and will be dedicated to sustainable mobility and smart cities.
Register here: aifortheplanet.org