Artificial intelligence for the European Green Deal

Preparing the transition to a carbon-neutral economy requires collecting, processing and analyzing vast amounts of data, such as environmental observations from satellites and ground-based systems. AI assistance is increasingly being used for this purpose. Artificial intelligence can be used to predict the effects of climate change, monitor and protect ecosystems, optimize energy consumption or reduce harmful emissions, and thus influence the implementation of the European Green Deal.

What impact does artificial intelligence have on European Green Deal implementation efforts?

The European Green Deal is the EU’s growth strategy. Launched in 2019, the package of policy initiatives sets the EU on the road to green transformation and, ultimately, to climate neutrality, which is planned to be achieved by 2050. To meet these challenges, the EC is increasingly emphasizing the development of artificial intelligence, which could be one of the key elements in the quest for climate neutrality. We wrote about the development of AI in a previous article: Artificial intelligence one of the EU’s development goals.

The use of artificial intelligence makes it possible to analyze data from Earth’s environmental observations, which are crucial to understanding and mitigating the challenges facing humanity and the planet. This data must be readily available, and computers and digital systems should be able to take full advantage of it and maximize the potential benefits. Currently, artificial intelligence is being used to prevent floods, among other things, as we wrote about in a previous article: Artificial intelligence will help prevent floods.

The challenges of sharing and reusing data can be addressed by ensuring the searchability, accessibility, interoperability and reuse of data consistent with FAIR principles. These principles promote openness and collaboration, thereby maximizing the potential value of data collected in research and other fields.

Projects on the use of artificial intelligence for the implementation of the European Green Deal

The following are six Horizon Europe-led projects that have significant potential to develop a highly accurate digital twin of the Earth as part of the flagship Direction Earth (DestinE) initiative, an important pillar of the European Commission’s European Green Deal and Digital Strategy efforts.

DestinE unleashes the potential of digital modeling of the Earth system at a level that represents a true breakthrough in terms of accuracy, local detail, speed of information access and interactivity.

DestinE supports the solution of complex environmental problems:

• Monitoring and simulating the development of Earth’s systems (land, sea, atmosphere, biosphere) and human interference;
• Anticipating environmental disasters and the resulting socioeconomic crises to save lives and property;
• enables the development and testing of scenarios for increasingly sustainable development.

Projects for better data and better data management:

1. EO4EU – This project uses learning models to extract valuable information from massive amounts of consolidated environmental observation data, using a comprehensive approach to make it available to users at a single point through enhanced interfaces and augmented reality;
2. The OEMC project leverages collaborative digitization and open access to the highest quality geospatial data to include and visualize satellite imagery through a web-based application;
3. The AD4GD project is taking on the challenge of co-creating components and methodologies for FAIR’s Green Deal data space infrastructure;
4. The B3 project transforms the biodiversity monitoring process from a disconnected, labor-intensive activity into an efficient and flexible procedure, using the concept of data cubes to improve data access and coordination;
5. The FAIRiCUBE project addresses the challenges of data fragmentation through a consistent framework that centralizes data access and processing to improve collaboration and usability;
6. The USAGE project contributes to better decision-making and data management by fostering sustainability and resilience in areas such as climate change, circular economy, pollution elimination and biodiversity, testing solutions to specific challenges in four European cities.

The European Commission aims to make artificial intelligence systems used in the EU safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly. Despite the comprehensive environmental benefits of artificial intelligence, the negative aspects of its use, such as the generation of carbon emissions, water consumption and increased energy consumption, should not be forgotten either.

MAIN PHOTO: Igor Omilaev / Unsplash