COP26 and beyond: the crucial role for AI in tackling climate change

Tackling the climate crisis is going to require a combined scientific, industrial, public and governmental effort on a scale that has never been seen before. It's little wonder, then, that the eyes of the world will be on Glasgow this weekend as COP26 gets underway. The goals of this UN climate change conference include reducing greenhouse gas emissions (with a target of global net zero by 2050), and protecting communities and natural habitats by making infrastructure and agriculture more resilient to future climate changes. Data science and artificial intelligence (AI) will have a crucial role to play in achieving these aims, allowing us to fully exploit the rapid growth in environmental data from sensors, remote sensing satellites and increasingly powerful numerical weather and climate models, to transform our understanding of the complex interactions between the environment, climate, ecosystems, and human social and economic systems. The sheer volume of data that needs to be assessed for developing sustainable pathways to net zero means that human decision-making needs to be augmented with AI.