On November 30, the 28th United Nations International Climate Conference (COP 28) started in the UAE, which is attended by more than 150 countries. Until December 12, the summit participants will discuss the most important environmental and climate issues and jointly seek ways to solve them.
The main task of COP 28 is to struggle against global warming and keep it within 1.5°C - a maximum of 2 °C from the temperature of the pre-industrial level. This border was established by the Paris Agreement concluded in 2015.
Can AI reduce or increase greenhouse gas emissions?
Generative AI has become the main trend of 2023, so it was necessary to discuss its prospects at the largest climate conference of the year. According to The New York Times, citing Google representatives participating in the summit, AI can help countries minimize greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere. A team of researchers led by David Sandalow, a former representative of the US Energy Department in the administration of President Barack Obama, has compiled a so-called "roadmap" to show how new technologies can be applied in various sectors of the economy to achieve climate goals. According to Sandalow, AI can accelerate the development of "green" energy technologies needed to reduce emissions into the atmosphere. For example, it can be useful in creating environmentally friendly batteries.
In addition, on the opening day of the summit, UN representatives said that the organization is working with Microsoft to create an artificial intelligence-based tool to track whether countries are fulfilling their promises to reduce fossil fuel emissions. If the case is successful, AI will be able to facilitate international cooperation on climate issues.
In addition to such more advanced issues, AI is already helping companies send warnings to people who are at risk of being in a disaster area.
However, there is also a downside to using AI in the fight against climate change. Skeptics warn that the large computing power of new technologies requires a huge amount of electricity, which can lead to an increase in harmful emissions into the atmosphere. According to scientists, by 2027, AI systems can consume as much electricity as the whole of Sweden.
Microsoft has already started working on this problem and is striving to make its AI centers more energy efficient and switch them to renewable sources.
Coal and other fossil resources have become a stumbling block
The climate conference was not without high-profile statements. Thus, Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, head of the COP28 summit and Minister of Industry and Advanced Technologies of the UAE, said that the requirements to phase out the use of fossil fuels completely are not scientifically justified. According to him, there is no data indicating that such a refusal will keep global warming within 1.5 °C from pre-industrial levels. According to Al-Jaber, abandoning coal, oil and gas "will bring humanity back to the caves." These statements by the head of the summit alarmed scientists, and some even said that the politician began to deny climate problems.
The Guardian noted that such rhetoric contradicts the views of the UN on this issue. Professor Sir David King, chairman of the Advisory Group on the Climate Crisis and former chief scientific adviser to the UK, said that in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C, all countries should start reducing the use of fossil fuels as soon as possible, and completely abandon it by 2035. The alternative may be the unmanageable future of humanity.
During the summit, 118 countries signed an agreement on the development of renewable energy sources. However, the world's fastest growing economy, India, refused to sign it and intends to continue using coal. Russia and China are also not yet seeking to completely abandon the use of fossil fuels in the foreseeable future.
Bill Gates does not believe that warming no higher than 2 °C is achievable and warns of the consequences
Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world and the creator of Microsoft believes that humanity will not be able to abandon fossil fuels as soon as possible and reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere to zero, which means that it will most likely not work to keep the temperature below 2°C from pre-industrial levels. Nevertheless, the billionaire praised COP28 for making progress in addressing climate change despite international tensions.
According to a study by the Lancet Planetary Health journal, if the planet warms up by 3°C compared to pre-industrial levels, this could lead to up to 50 million people regularly being exposed to extremely high temperatures beyond the limits of human survival. In New York, three floods can occur annually, which now occur once a century, and 52 times more people will face dangerous heat in African cities. In addition, the amount of land destroyed by wildfires around the world will double, and the Amazon rainforest will turn into meadows. A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme shows that the world is on the path to warming to 2.9°C, based on the current rate of emission reduction in different countries. In an interview with Bloomberg, Bill Gates called nuclear fusion and the "green" industry possible ways to solve the problem. The billionaire invests in dozens of clean technology companies and believes that the world should abandon fossil fuels as soon as possible.
