In this episode Victor Galaz, Associate Professor in Political Science at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, dives deep into what artificial intelligence might mean for climate change. AI is often discussed as a potential “game changer” for climate change action. One key issue in this conversation focuses on the growing energy, water and carbon footprint of AI, and ways to mitigate these footprints. While important, this debate has failed to grasp the wider impacts of “AI” in the climate and sustainability domain, thus leading to a failure to fully grasp – and thus govern – these technologies impacts. In this talk, I will explore the complex and at times deep indirect impacts of AI on climate action and policy. These relate to 1) “AI” as a scientific method (e.g., driving new advances in the climate sciences); 2) “AI” as a consumer product (e.g., embedded in digital products used by people on a daily basis like chatbots and messenger apps); 3) “AI” as a growing and influential political actor (thus shaping climate policies, environmental legislation, and carbon markets).

Victor Galaz is Associate Professor in Political Science at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, and at the Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

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