As the climate crisis escalates, innovative applications of artificial intelligence technology are offering new hope in the race to increase resilience and curb emissions. At this year’s pivotal COP28 summit, IBM has revealed numerous collaborations that leverage the latest AI capabilities, including geospatial models and generative techniques, to generate urgent insights and drive action on pressing environmental threats.
One pioneering flagship project with the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in Abu Dhabi has already succeeded in reducing observed urban heat island effects across parts of the city by over 3°C. The research team applied a tailored version of IBM’s powerful new geospatial foundation model to map microclimate variability and inform the development of cooling strategies in urban design. With cities facing mounting heat stress and potentially unlivable future summers, such AI mapping and planning aids will grow increasingly critical.
Meanwhile, in sub-Saharan Africa, IBM is backing the ambitious goals of the Kenyan government to plant 15 billion new trees by 2032 under its National Tree Growing and Restoration Campaign. Using a digital platform powered by IBM’s geospatial intelligence, individuals and communities can visually track reforestation efforts within specific threatened landscapes known as “water towers” that play an outsized role in water security for surrounding regions. The initiative also employs fine-tuned models that combine IBM’s base geospatial data with local ecological knowledge to enable detailed biomass monitoring over time in these critical basins.
In the UK, IBM’s climate insights are being applied to boost resilience in areas ranging from aviation to urban planning. Partnerships with major engineering consultancies like Royal HaskoningDHV leverage geospatial models to conduct comprehensive assessments of weather risk impacts on airport infrastructure and flight disruption. Meanwhile, by mapping localised flood patterns, AI-generated tree planting recommendations also aim to protect vulnerable communities through schemes like Glasgow’s Trees AI project.
With its long history of environmental advocacy, IBM is now accelerating its AI for Earth initiatives dramatically through wide-ranging government, academic and startup collaborations. Its latest partnership with NASA applies generative machine learning techniques to weather forecasting and climate pattern detection—enabling breakthrough capabilities around prediction lead times, granularity and extreme event risk analytics.
While climate change threatens lives and livelihoods globally, IBM’s COP28 showcase of scalable AI solutions indicates the transformational potential ahead if ethics and inclusivity also remain central to technological progress. Indeed, rapid advances on projects from urban heat mapping to regenerative agriculture show emerging signs that humanity’s greatest innovations may yet come in time to also prove our greatest saviour.
