How can emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) contribute to mitigating and adapting to climate challenges? Among its numerous potentialities, AI can be used to monitor forests and predict natural disasters, facilitating risk management and response planning to environmental crises. In an exclusive article for the G20 Brasil website, researcher Atahualpa Blanchet points out the possibilities of integrating high technology with humanity's urgent need to adapt to increasingly severe climate change in order to avoid even more catastrophic scenarios than the current ones.
The climate and environmental crisis has intensified considerably in recent years, with direct consequences for millions of people in different parts of the world. The global average temperature has risen by around 1.2°C compared to the pre-industrial period, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The rise in global temperatures has accelerated the melting of glaciers, increasing sea levels by approximately 20 centimeters over the last 100 years. Sea levels are expected to increase by up to 1 meter by 2100, threatening coastal regions, requiring urgent resilience infrastructure measures, and potentially forcing the migration of millions of people.
In addition to challenging the efficiency of economic and environmental policies for sustainability, the climate crisis is also testing the G20 countries' ability to adapt. The concept of adaptation involves adjusting social, economic, and technological systems to deal with the increasingly severe and frequent impacts of climate change, such as excessive heat and cold, extreme droughts, and torrential rains.
In this scenario, the G20, under the presidency of Brasil, brings to the center of the international agenda the debate on how emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), can contribute to mitigating and adapting to climate challenges. Among its numerous potentialities, AI can be used to monitor forests and predict natural disasters, facilitating risk management and response planning to environmental crises.
The strategic use of technology can also contribute to the energy transition process, optimizing the use of renewable sources, such as solar and wind power, as well as helping to reduce carbon emissions.
AI and Environmental Preservation: Adaptation and Innovation
Artificial Intelligence offers the possibility of improving actions to monitor forests, prevent illegal deforestation, optimize water use, and predict natural disasters more accurately. These are examples of how emerging technologies can be adapted to reduce the impacts of the climate crisis in different regions of the planet.
AI can be applied, for example, to detect deforestation activities using tools such as Global Forest Watch, which uses satellite data to monitor forests in real time and quickly identifies areas that have been or are being deforested.
Algorithmic systems can also play a significant role in identifying plant species with medicinal properties, promoting the valorization of the traditional knowledge of forest peoples. Collaborative tools such as Pl@ntNet allow users to identify plants from photos, contributing to the cataloging of medicinal plants. In Brasil, the Iandé Project integrates the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples with AI data, aiming at the conservation of species and the sustainable use of natural resources.
Artificial Intelligence offers the possibility of improving actions to monitor forests, prevent illegal deforestation, optimize water use, and predict natural disasters more accurately. These are examples of how emerging technologies can be adapted to reduce the impacts of the climate crisis in different regions of the planet.
In Canada, the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program uses AI to monitor and evaluate forests, contributing to sustainable management and biodiversity conservation.
In Australia, the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) applies predictive and monitoring tools to identify deforestation and habitat degradation actions. In India, the Green Watch system uses algorithms to track forest activities and guarantee the implementation of conservation policies.
Developed in Brasil by the Amazon Institute of People and the Environment (Imazon), the Deforestation Alert System (SAD) applies AI algorithms to generate deforestation alerts in Amazonia, allowing for more effective monitoring actions. Other initiatives, such as PrevisIA, in partnership with Microsoft, employ predictive models to anticipate areas at risk of deforestation, facilitating preventive measures.
Maceió Declaration and Information Integrity
The Maceió Ministerial Declaration on Digital Inclusion for All, approved by the G20 Digital Economy WG, reflects the growing international importance of emerging technologies as a tool for sustainable development based on social inclusion.
More than a set of technical guidelines, the document addresses the role of technology in transforming societies, focusing on topics such as digital inclusion, information integrity, and the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The Maceió Declaration emphasizes the potential of emerging technologies as tools to mitigate the impacts of climate change and facilitate the energy transition. In this context, adaptation consists of shaping and directing technological innovation to meet local needs and specificities, particularly in areas of environmental preservation and those that require a concentrated effort to tackle poverty.
The transition to renewable energy, such as solar and wind energy, requires massive infrastructure investments, professional training, and social inclusion. For the G20 countries as a whole, adaptation to climate change and the energy and digital transition also includes taking into account structural variables related to communication, such as disinformation and climate denialism.
Tackling the climate crisis also involves fighting disinformation. Information integrity is essential to ensure that political decisions and climate actions are based on reliable scientific data and criteria. It is necessary to bring politics closer to science and to value the role of academia in formulating effective measures to mitigate the effects of climate change.
In Canada, the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program uses AI to monitor and evaluate forests, contributing to sustainable management and biodiversity conservation.
In Australia, the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) applies predictive and monitoring tools to identify deforestation and habitat degradation actions. In India, the Green Watch system uses algorithms to track forest activities and guarantee the implementation of conservation policies.
The role of the G20 and adaptation in the context of climate change
In recent decades, the international community has advanced in building consensus frameworks on the impact of emerging technologies. The UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, adopted in 2021, and the UN's efforts towards a Global Digital Pact are initiatives that seek to balance technology's transformative potential with the need to protect human rights and promote social justice.
In the same vein, the Declarations on Information Integrity and Human Rights Principles in the Field of Artificial Intelligence, approved by Mercosur in 2023, demonstrate the region's commitment to the issue, including Brasil, whose presidency of the G20 already pointed to its stance on the responsible use of emerging technologies at the service of an ecologically sustainable, economically viable, and socially just development project.
Continuing the construction of an international corpus juris on rights in the digital age, the Maceió Declaration underlines information integrity as a central aspect for evidence-based political decisions, contributing to effective solutions on issues such as environmental preservation, energy transition, and decarbonization of economies.
In a world increasingly affected by climate crises and technological transformations, the G20 emphasizes the importance of applying the concept of adaptation as a central pillar for building transversal measures for the intersection between technological innovation and environmental preservation.
By promoting international cooperation and technology exchange, the G20 is strategically positioned to provide and distribute the technical, economic, and technological resources required to overcome the climate crisis with resilience, innovation, and social justice.
Atahualpa Blanchet is a researcher at USP's Institute for Advanced Studies and at PUC-SP's Research Group on Digital Transformation and Society. Specialist in New Technologies at the MERCOSUR Institute of Public Policies on Human Rights (IPPDH) and consultant in Artificial Intelligence at the UNESCO Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
