2024 Reports

Artificial Intelligence for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap (Second Edition)

Sandalow, David B.; McCormick, Colin; Kucukelbir, Alp; Friedmann, Julio; Nachmany, Michal; Lee, Hoesung; Hill, Alice; Loehr, Daniel; Wald, Matthew; Halff, Antoine M.; Glatt, Ruben; Benoit, Philippe; Karl, Kevin A.; Zhiyuan, Fan; Carter, Maria Frances; Nagrani, Trishna; Ponangi, Rama; Steklac, Ivo; Sweet, Lily-belle; Kruse, Cameron; Turchetta, Matteo; Garland, Sarah; Méndez Leal, Elena; Chandra, Ranveer; Ruane, Alex C.

The first ICEF Artificial Intelligence for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap was released in December 2023. Since that time, attention to artificial intelligence (AI) has continued to grow at a rapid pace. Tens of billions of dollars have poured into AI projects, policymakers around the world have considered new AI policies, and OpenAI reports that each month more than 200 million people now use ChatGPT.

Signs of a changing climate continue to grow as well. Based on global average temperatures, July 22, 2024 was the warmest day ever recorded; 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded; and the 10 warmest years on record are the past 10 years. Yet global emissions of greenhouse gases continue to climb.

Can AI help cut emissions of greenhouse gases? This Roadmap explores that question. In this second edition of the Artificial Intelligence for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap, a team of 25 co-authors builds on last year’s roadmap—comprehensively updating all old chapters, adding six new chapters and offering 5–10 specific, actionable recommendations in each chapter.

Our goal is to provide a useful resource for experts and non-experts alike. In Part I of this Roadmap, we provide brief introductions to both AI and climate change. In Part II, we explore eight sectors in which AI is helping respond to climate change and could do much more. In Part III, we explore cross-cutting issues. We close with findings and recommendations.

This roadmap builds on the body of literature produced annually in connection with the ICEF conference.