AI Comes To the Climate’s Rescue
- By Lachlan Colquhoun
- March 29, 2022
Australia has experienced extremes from climate change over the last two years, with a drought followed by devastating bushfires and, more recently, destructive flooding up along the eastern seaboard.
The Government’s budget recently earmarked significant funds for new dams and flood mitigation, following the massive bushfire relief. But a quieter — and more technological — response is being formulated by the national science organization, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), where a range of technologies such as robotics, precision agriculture, and AI are being harnessed in the nation’s climate response.
CSIRO chief information officer Brendan Dalton sat down recently at NVIDIA’s GTC conference in a fireside chat with Keith Strier, vice president of Worldwide AI initiatives at NVIDIA. He outlined how the organization is teaming up on a range of accelerated computing initiatives, including the production of digital twins.
“CSIRO has been using NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform for over a decade, and I envisage that this new collaboration will expand our efforts around AI research, startups, and industrial ventures, row a more robust local AI ecosystem, and support the launch of our new National AI Centre,” said Dalton.
Key applications of AI are around climate change, such as more accurate bushfire prediction. CSIRO scientists have developed an AI tool that can help first responders better predict how a bushfire is likely to develop to adopt more appropriate firefighting tactics. AI helps train these models faster, while AI is also being harnessed in predicting weather patterns and natural disasters.
Boost GDP and cut emissions
The broader potential of AI in climate defense is significant.
A PwC study commissioned by Microsoft concluded that using AI for environmental applications can boost global GDP by 3.1% to 4.4% while also reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by around 1.5% to 4.0% by 2030 relative to business as usual. AI applications in energy and transport have the most significant impact.
Those figures sound modest, but applied globally, the savings in greenhouse gas emissions are equivalent to the 2030 annual emissions of Australia, Canada, and Japan combined.
As a key solutions provider and developer in AI, NVIDIA also has some perspective on the potential impact on climate change.
John Harding, NVIDIA’s regional director for U.K. and Ireland, recently said that AI could forecast the weather 100,000 times faster than traditional models.
Scientists need greater resolution on their models to improve simulations of cloud patterns, for example, and this requires exponentially higher computer power than what is currently available.
AI for environmental applications has the potential to boost global GDP by 3.1% to 4.4% while also reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by around 1.5% to 4.0% by 2030
With advances in AI, however, the huge leap to delivering super-resolution climate modeling is coming closer. NVIDIA’s digital twin system, which simulates the earth’s climate, is well underway in development, combining computing power, training models, and data management to understand mitigation and adaption.
A combination of satellite technology and AI can also deliver better monitoring levels so that events such as wildfires can be detected faster and responded to. Swiss company OraraTech, for example, is using NVIDIA’s Jetson computer and small nano-satellites to detect the first signs of serious fires anywhere in the world.
Given that wildfires are responsible for around 6% of the earth’s carbon dioxide emissions, the potential impact AI can have in cutting that back is considerable.
In the area of flooding, scientists have also applied deep learning to more than 60,000 satellite images and created models for predicting flood zones.
Accelerating the transition
Even legacy fossil fuel companies are looking to AI to limit their emissions as they push for Net Zero by 2050.
Global energy producer Shell, for example, is using AI to accelerate its transition. It sponsored an AI hackathon in late 2021, which focused on harnessing the power of the sun.
Recent reports on the climate have made for sober reading, but one positive is the explosion in AI startups looking to use the technology for climate defense.
These span companies such as Canada’s BrainBox, which uses AI to optimize energy use in buildings.
Berlin-based Plan A has developed an AI- and digital-driven SaaS platform for automated carbon accounting, decarbonization, ESG management, and reporting that serves customers across the globe.
Some of it gets down to the individual. Danish-based Tomorrow is a technology startup using data and machine learning to quantify the climate impact of our daily actions automatically.
In parallel with the Green IT movement, next-generation technologies play a significant part in climate defense, as indicators show the world is moving into a crucial phase.
Lachlan Colquhoun is the Australia and New Zealand correspondent for CDOTrends and the NextGenConnectivity editor. He remains fascinated with how businesses reinvent themselves through digital technology to solve existing issues and change their entire business models. You can reach him at [email protected].
Image credit: iStockphoto/elenabs