A key conference in Abu Dhabi ahead of Cop29 in Azerbaijan will focus on how artificial intelligence can help fight climate change.
Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, chairman of Cop28, said the November event in the UAE capital will address the contradiction between AI’s “thirst for power” and its “potential to reduce emissions.”
In an article on global commentary website Project Syndicate on Wednesday, Dr. Sultan said. Al Jaber said the conference, which will be attended by business leaders, politicians, investors and civil society representatives, aims to discuss what that might look like in practice.
The Changemakers Majlis will be held in Azerbaijan just before Cop29 begins on November 11, almost a year after the start of Cop28 in the UAE.
COP28 concluded on December 13th last year with the historic agreement, known as the UAE Consensus, in which some 200 countries agreed to phase out fossil fuels from the global energy system and large-scale expansion of clean energy.
A Majlis was also held during the climate change talks to encourage countries to move forward more quickly. A few days later, the groundbreaking deal was agreed upon.
“The key to the success of the agreement was inclusiveness: no one was left out, no industry was marginalized, and no solution was off the table,” wrote Dr. Al Jaber, who is also the UAE’s Minister of Industry and High Technology and Special Envoy for Climate Change.
“In terms of implementation, the world must take all measures to accelerate progress. “Specifically, this means leveraging artificial intelligence, which is expected to have a far-reaching and transformative impact on the energy transition, which is expected to add $7 trillion to global GDP over the next decade,” he wrote.
AI’s Potential in the Fight Against Climate Change
In this article, Dr. Al Jaber said that “it is hard to overestimate AI’s potential in the fight against climate change” because AI can redesign industrial processes, enhance transportation systems, increase energy efficiency, and minimize emissions.
But its “downside” is its “insatiable energy consumption, putting further strain on an already overburdened power system.” He said that emissions from the largest AI companies have increased by about 30% since 2019, and data center electricity demand could increase by 160% by 2030.
“These new operations could use the same amount of electricity as Canada, which means twice the carbon dioxide emissions. It will be hard to bridge this gap, as currently no single source of energy can meet such a large increase in demand,” he wrote.
Resolving “the contradiction between AI’s energy hunger and its potential for reducing emissions,” he writes, will require tech and energy companies to work together in new and creative ways.
“To this end, I will convene a ‘Changemakers Majlis’ in Abu Dhabi in November, a traditional gathering that fosters the exchange of different perspectives, to discuss AI and the energy transition.” This has given Adnoc cause for optimism about AI, such as the company’s use of “predictive maintenance and machine learning tools” to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to one million tonnes in just one year.
He also noted how AI is transforming agriculture, another energy-intensive sector, by increasing crop yields and minimizing water use by up to 40%.
Dr. Al Jaber also discussed how technology companies are beginning to work with energy companies to address these new challenges, such as Microsoft’s deal with Brookfield to develop 10.5 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030 and Masdar’s intention to quadruple its renewable energy capacity from 100 gigawatts by 2030. .
“We are also seeing increased investment in nuclear-powered data centers, but these will take decades to build,” he said.
“Meanwhile, up to 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, the fossil fuel with the lowest carbon intensity, will be needed, as well as significant investments in global grid infrastructure to keep up with growing demand.”
The Majlis is due to be released in the coming months, but Dr. Al Jaber said the goal is to bring people together to address the problem.
“Given our commitment to sustainable development and our evolution into a leader in AI with investment platforms such as MGX and infrastructure developers such as G42 and Falcon, the region’s largest and fastest growing large-scale language model, we want to bring stakeholders together around an issue of critical importance to all of humanity,” Dr. Al Jaber wrote.
“By building bridges between energy and AI, we can deliver on the UAE consensus and seize the greatest economic opportunity since the First Industrial Revolution.”