Tackling climate change with data science and AI

In this white paper, we share how The Alan Turing Institute’s AI for science and government (ASG) programme has been using collaborative and multidisciplinary data science and AI to help tackle climate change.

We describe four key research areas in which data science and AI can address the climate crisis:

1. Monitoring the environment.
2. Forecasting environmental change.
3. Simulating the human cost of climate change.
4. Adapting to climate change.

Within each of these areas, we spotlight an ASG project that has demonstrated particular success, encompassing software for automatic plankton classification, a framework for forecasting Arctic sea ice change, a model for simulating the health impacts of extreme heat, and a digital twin that is being used to optimise the world’s first underground farm.

Based on our experiences with these projects, and within the broader ASG programme, we provide four recommendations for how researchers and funders can better use data science and AI to tackle climate change:

1. Apply cutting-edge data science and AI to environmental decision-making.
2. Foster a community of AI specialists, environmental researchers and stakeholders.
3. Build robust digital pipelines.
4. Develop digital twins to support decarbonisation.

The climate emergency needs urgent solutions. This paper demonstrates how data science and AI can play a key role by advancing our scientific understanding of this planet-threatening problem and providing new pathways to mitigation and adaptation.