Our Magazine
Brussels Morning Online Newspaper
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
    • About Us
  • EU institutions
    • Commission
    • Parliament
    • Council
  • Europe
  • World
  • Economy
  • Culture and Society
  • In Depth
    • Ambassador’s Corner
    • The American Angle
    • Europe With Transparency
    • Sustainable Perspective
    • Place de la Bourse
    • The Macro-Economist
    • Southeast Europe
Brussels Morning Online Newspaper
  • Home
    • About Us
  • EU institutions
    • Commission
    • Parliament
    • Council
  • Europe
  • World
  • Economy
  • Culture and Society
  • In Depth
    • Ambassador’s Corner
    • The American Angle
    • Europe With Transparency
    • Sustainable Perspective
    • Place de la Bourse
    • The Macro-Economist
    • Southeast Europe
Brussels Morning Online Newspaper
No Result
View All Result
Home EU Institutions

EU evaluates how AI can help deliver the Green Deal

Marta Pacheco by Marta Pacheco
7 April 2021
in EU Institutions
EU evaluates how AI can help deliver the Green Deal

3d rendering ai robot think or compute

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Brussels (Brussels Morning) The EU is assessing how artificial intelligence (AI) can deliver the Green Deal , which the European Commission committed to in December 2019. Some preliminary findings were recently shared with Brussels Morning by the European Parliament’s Special Committee on AI in a Digital Age (AIDA).

MEP Dragoş Tudorache (Renew), the AIDA Chair, praised AI’s potential and how it can help in the fight against environmental and climate degradation.  

“AI can help us build better cities that are more efficient, increase agricultural efficiency, increase energy efficiency, monitor the environment and make climate predictions, model complex ecological systems or even the Earth, and carbon-optimise most areas of human activity that contribute to global warming”, Tudorache said.

Key takeaways from the AIDA’s public hearing, together with the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), reveal that ICT technologies are estimated as being capable of reducing 10 times more greenhouse gas emissions than their own footprint.

Currently, the ICT sector accounts for more than 2% of global emissions and the share is expected to increase. According to Clara de la Torre, Deputy Director General of the EC’s DG CLIMA, the green deal data space — GreenData4All —is a viable project combining data and climate action as highlighted in the EU’s strategy for data.

As for funding, de la Torre pointed to the new Recovery and Resilience Fund, in which 37% has been assigned for the Green Deal and 20% for digital projects.

Shereen Zorba, Head of the UN Science-Policy-Business Forum on the Environment and Chief of Science Policy-Business Interface at the UN Environment Programme cited the potential of AI in creating greener and a more sustainable future through the generation and reporting of more environmental data. 

However, Zorba noted that “a lot of necessary data is not available yet”. She noted how, in the case of current reporting on environmental indicators of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, “68% of the needed data does not yet exist”.

Mozilla’s Sustainability Steward, Cathleen Berger, told AIDA members that the volume of data stored across the world — which is also used to train AI — will grow to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025, more than doubling the 74 zettabytes estimated for 2021.

The data centres will have a significant environmental footprint. However, installations will require considerable amounts of land on which to build the centres, water to cool the facilities, rare earths used for hardware, in addition to entailing demands for electricity and connectivity to meet their needs. 

“The benefits of AI must be assessed in the light of the actual costs and the environmental footprint”, Berger said, noting “that measuring this is incredibly complex”. 

Ethics

Currently, no country has laws in place for ethical and responsible AI for the planet, and according to Zorba, it will be “interesting to see if companies will self-monitor in this area or if governments will step in to regulate”.

The S&D group hailed AI’s potential for curbing climate change but urged caution when dealing with ethical issues. “We call for ethical rules requiring AI to be sustainable and environmentally responsible”, the Socialists stated. 

Given the swift development of AI technologies, the S&D called on the EU to prioritise investments in research and breakthrough technologies and to strongly support AI talent by both keeping it in Europe and attracting it from abroad.

The Greens urged a “balanced” approach between AI’s environmental footprint and a systemic approach that would not pressure raw materials, biodiversity loss and pollution: “We must acknowledge the impact of training and running AI on the environment to avoid an acceleration of current environmental degradation”.

ESA’s contribute

The European Space Agency (ESA) programmes Copernicus and EUMETSAT, along with member state satellites ,are using “space [to take] the pulse of our planet”, the agency’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, told AIDA and ENVI members.

Starting in 2021, Aschbacher said, a long-term project will get underway that will draw on the accumulated data and “with the help of Earth system modelling, AI, machine learning and supercomputers” seek to create “digital twins” of the planet. 

This will enable the project to simulate the impact people have on the planet by running multiple scenarios ranging from what might happen were coal power plants shut down earlier than currently envisaged to the benefits of cars using sustainable energy instead of gas or diesel.

Victor Galaz, Deputy Director and Associate Professor of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Programme Director at the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, declared that “the time to use the full potential of AI on climate change is now”.

However, he went on to caution that current knowledge about the climate benefits AI can offer “is highly limited”. According to Galaz, all assessments to date are “preliminary” and often “too optimistic”. 

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Tags: Biweekly MartaBrussels LatestMain-Slider
Marta Pacheco

Marta Pacheco

Marta Pacheco is the Brussels Morning European Commission Editor. She studied Political Science and Media & Journalism at the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP). A former Blue Book trainee of the European Commission, Marta has a keen interest in global affairs and experience in EU and diplomatic affairs reporting.

Latest post

The Light House: When you turn on a light at the Boghossian Stitching

The Light House: When you turn on a light at the Boghossian Stitching

18 mins ago
CSU’s Söder backs CDU head Laschet for German Chancellor

CSU’s Söder backs CDU head Laschet for German Chancellor

26 mins ago

Most Read

  • A very Georgian provokatsiya

    A very Georgian provokatsiya

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • EC to investigate €1bn worth of missing lumber in Croatian forests

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Salmond’s strategic masterstroke

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The explorer of non-places: interview with one of the world’s most intrepid travellers

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Seeking climate consensus amidst Sino-American rivalry

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Subscribe
Facebook Twitter Youtube LinkedIn

About Us

Brussels Morning is a daily online newspaper based in Belgium. BM publishes unique and independent coverage on international and European affairs. With a Europe-wide perspective, BM covers policies and politics of the EU, significant Member State developments, and looks at the international agenda with a European perspective.

Category

  • Ambassador’s Corner
  • Commission
  • Council
  • Culture and Society
  • Diplomacy
  • Economy
  • EU Institutions
  • Europe
  • Europe With Transparency
  • Features
  • In Depth
  • Member States
  • Middle East Eye
  • Opinion
  • Our pick
  • Parliament
  • Place de la Bourse
  • Southeast Europe
  • Sustainable Perspective
  • The American Angle
  • The Macro-Economist
  • Uncategorised
  • US Elections
  • World

More info

  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Cookies Policy
  • Contact Us
  • FAQ
  • Jobs

Brussels Morning Newspaper - All Rights Reserved © 2020

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Us
  • EU Institutions
    • Parliament
    • Commission
    • Council
  • Europe
  • World
  • Member States
  • Economy
  • Culture and Society
  • In Depth
    • Ambassador’s Corner
    • Europe With Transparency
    • Place de la Bourse
    • The Macro-Economist
    • Sustainable Perspective
    • The American Angle
    • Southeast Europe
  • Magazine

Brussels Morning Newspaper - All Rights Reserved © 2020

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT