Hello, changemakers and curious minds! Today, we’re exploring a crucial intersection where technology meets urgent global needs: how we can wield AI responsibly and address climate change. As many of us know, AI’s impact extends far beyond our inboxes and workflows—it’s transforming entire industries, sometimes with significant environmental costs. As a sector built around social good, we have a responsibility to ask: How can we use AI in ways that protect and restore our planet, rather than contributing to its depletion?
With AI expanding rapidly, the social sector must engage actively in these conversations and, more importantly, take action to steer AI toward climate-conscious, ethical ends. Below are four steps philanthropy and nonprofits can take to promote climate mindfulness and equity in AI’s development.
1. Shift from an Industry-Driven to a Public Interest-Driven Approach
AI development is overwhelmingly industry-led, driven by companies like Google and Microsoft that prioritize speed and power over environmental care. As one observer noted, “Google’s real motivation here is to build the best AI systems they can... pouring resources into training AI systems on massive data centers and even supercomputers, which incurs tremendous electricity consumption and CO2 emissions.” (Source: NPR)
This drive for AI advancement comes at a significant environmental cost, with AI’s computational demands contributing to rising emissions. In 2019, training a single large AI model generated approximately 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide—the same as five cars’ lifetime emissions (Source: MIT Technology Review). This unsustainable trajectory must be challenged if we want AI to support, not hinder, climate goals.
Solution: Philanthropy and nonprofits can drive a shift from an industry-first to a public interest-driven AI paradigm. This means funding initiatives and policies that prioritize the public good over profit. David Rolnick of Climate Change AI put it well: “We need to think of AI for good…meaning shaping all applications of AI to be better for society.” To achieve this, funders can support policies that hold AI developers accountable for their environmental impacts and push for AI standards that emphasize public interest and sustainability.
Call to Action: Advocate for a “Techno-Social Contract” in AI that ensures the voices of those most affected by climate change are prioritized in AI’s development. By supporting coalitions, policies, and platforms that amplify marginalized voices, philanthropy can make public good the primary driver of AI innovation.
2. Prioritize AI Applications That Address Climate Challenges
While some AI applications contribute to emissions, AI also has powerful potential to support climate resilience. Imagine AI’s role in optimizing energy grids, monitoring climate data, improving transportation, and accelerating green tech discoveries, like advanced batteries or sustainable agriculture. These applications are real and impactful, and they’re here if we direct resources strategically.
AI has been shown to reduce emissions in sectors like energy and agriculture by optimizing systems and improving accuracy in forecasting. As Priya Donti from MIT and Climate Change AI explained, “AI can assess what crops are being grown where and identify adaptation measures based on climate projections, or analyze trends in deforestation and reforestation.” This data-driven insight is invaluable for targeted climate action.
Action: Philanthropy can make a significant impact by funding AI initiatives specifically focused on climate resilience. Climate Change AI, for example, connects stakeholders across fields to address climate issues through AI, providing a platform for collaboration and innovation. By investing in projects like these, we’re not just funding technology but ensuring that AI-driven climate solutions consider the needs of vulnerable communities.
Call to Action: Focus your funding on AI applications that directly address climate needs, such as energy efficiency, conservation, and biodiversity monitoring. Support initiatives that connect tech developers with environmental experts and local communities to create climate-smart solutions that are both impactful and just.
3. Advocate for Strong Regulatory Frameworks and Accountability Systems
Left unregulated, AI could undermine climate efforts through unchecked energy consumption and the acceleration of unsustainable practices. For instance, AI systems are increasingly used in fossil fuel extraction to boost production. This application alone is expected to generate $500 billion in additional profits for the oil and gas industry by 2025 (Source: McGill University), underscoring the need for policy interventions.
Solution: The social sector should advocate for regulations that align AI development with climate goals. The EU’s AI Act offers a promising model by requiring transparency and environmental impact disclosures for AI systems. Similar regulations could hold tech companies accountable for the environmental costs of their AI projects, while setting limits on AI applications that harm the planet.
Call to Action: Support coalitions that push for government policies to limit harmful AI practices and mandate environmental accountability. As funders, we have the influence to demand standards that prioritize environmental and ethical practices, ensuring AI development aligns with broader climate goals.
4. Foster Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Enhance Public Understanding
Climate change is not a single-issue crisis, and AI is not a one-dimensional tool. Addressing the complex, interconnected challenges of climate and AI requires collaboration across disciplines—from climate science and AI development to policy and social advocacy.
As Dr. Noah Diffenbaugh of Stanford University observes, “Machine learning creates a powerful new bridge between actual meteorological conditions that cause specific extreme events and climate models that enable us to run more generalized virtual experiments on the Earth system.” Effective AI solutions depend on this cross-pollination of expertise and perspective.
Strategies: Philanthropy can support platforms for interdisciplinary collaboration, connecting environmentalists, technologists, community leaders, and policymakers to drive AI projects with climate goals in mind. Funding educational programs that increase AI literacy among policymakers and the public can also empower citizens to demand AI applications that prioritize the environment.
Call to Action: Funders should support cross-sector innovation hubs that bring together diverse perspectives to tackle AI’s climate impacts. Additionally, invest in AI education and public literacy initiatives to help communities make informed decisions about AI’s role in climate solutions.
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Looking Ahead: A Climate-Conscious AI Future
Philanthropy has a unique role in guiding AI’s future. By centering climate consciousness and public accountability in AI development, we can help create a technology landscape that truly serves people and the planet. Let’s use our influence to push for responsible, climate-aligned AI practices, challenge industry-driven norms, and advocate for a future where AI doesn’t just do things better—but actually makes things better for everyone.
How can we as a sector step up? Through advocacy, collaboration, and funding, we can drive AI toward sustainable solutions that align with our values. This isn’t just a future we’re envisioning—it’s one we’re building together.
Additional reading and source content. Ample help from NotebookLM to organize and ChatGPT to narrate a first draft.
David Rolnick, of Climate Change AI, presentation at the University of Pennsylvania focuses on the emerging field of climate change AI, discussing how machine learning can help address the climate crisis while acknowledging its challenges and ethical concerns.
Then there is the AI Shadow report, a response to the Senate’s working group on AI that released a policy roadmap that missed including a swathe of stakeholders.
We need a paradigm shift where public good is the primary driver of AI development, not just an afterthought.
We need a Techno-Social Contract to meet the call of the shadow report to prioritize the voices of those most affected by AI.
Public interest must guide innovation. Not ROI.
Philanthropy needs to help ensure profit motive DOES NOT outweigh ethical and environmental considerations in AI development.