Climate Smart Change & Green AI

Our planet’s global average temperature is altering at a dangerous pace due to rising greenhouse emissions. In fact, the world is currently about 1.2°C warmer than it was in pre-industrial times. Unfortunately, the reality of the long-term impact of gases already emitted, compounded with the challenges of not being able to halt emissions overnight, avoiding a temperature rise of more than 1.5°C has already been deemed an unattainable goal by many experts.   

Although Climate Change is a global phenomenon, the impact in Africa is anticipated to be greater than in many other parts of the world. This expectation is supported by many factors, including the relatively low shock tolerance of many African countries and the relatively high percentage of African workers engaged in the agricultural sector. 

However, rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), green information and communication technologies (ICTs) and robotics offer some hope in our fight against climate change.  High-income countries are increasingly turning their focus to climate change adaptation, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a critical tool in those efforts. Algorithms using AI are making better predictions on the short- and long-term effects of climate change, including predictions related to weather patterns, floods and droughts, and human migration patterns. It is not clear, however, that Africa is (or will be) maximally benefitting from those AI tools, particularly since they are largely developed by highly developed countries using data sets that are specific to those same countries.

AI for Good is identifying and scaling solutions where AI can help us detect, adapt and respond to climate change in many different areas such as weather prediction, energy efficiency or by reducing emissions from transportation, agriculture and industry.