Where artificial intelligence and climate action meet

New ECNL research report explores how artificial intelligence affects the civic space for environmental defenders.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has a major influence on climate action, climate change mitigation and the work of environmental defenders. It offers potential benefits, for example when it is used to enhance high-resolution mapping of deforestation, coral reef loss, and soil erosion. On the other hand, it poses a threat to the climate and its defenders when it leads to extraction of natural resources and when automated online surveillance is used to enhance the power of states and corporations to suppress climate activism and grassroots resistance.

This is why ECNL conducted an exploratory research to start mapping this impact. The research also outlines recommended actions for international and local bodies and governments, civil society, technological companies and the donor community to ensure that AI applied in the context of climate respects core civic freedoms.

Some of the key messages of the research are:

• Intersections of AI and climate: Three main intersections where AI systems intersect with climate action are AI for sustainability, sustainable AI and AI against environmental defenders.
• Impact of large technology companies: Cutting across all intersections of AI and climate action is the powerful role of big tech companies which develop AI-driven solutions and use their lobbying influence to promote technology. This – according to environmental defenders – is not developed in a just and sustainable way, and instead maintains an extractive status quo.
• Perspectives and participation of environmental defenders missing in AI development: AI for sustainability and sustainable AI have a direct impact on human rights and societies as a whole. However, the crucial perspectives of environmental defenders, as well as society at large, are rarely directly sought and reflected in the process of developing and deploying AI systems or when assessing their environmental impact.
• Legal and policy framework: In the field of global and regional digital policy, there is currently no legal or policy instrument which would create specific requirements or accountability mechanisms for AI systems used for the purposes of mitigating climate change, nor specific rules for sustainability of AI. However, the last few years have brought significant developments when it comes to new regulatory frameworks for AI as such, which might to some extent apply to aspects of AI relevant for the environment.
• Next steps: AI at the intersection with climate action is still a very new topic and most environmental defenders and CSOs seem to have not yet formed their approach to these technologies. Some also feel that they lack the capacity to assess potential benefits or risks of AI due to the scientific and technical complexity of both AI systems and environmental challenges they are portrayed to address. More discussions are greatly needed, as well as opportunities for exchange between environmental defenders and the digital rights community specifically on the use of AI for tackling climate change.

This article was first published by ECNL here.

Contribution by: EDRi affiliate, European Center for Not-for-Profit Law