Artificial intelligence: key to saving our planet!

Artificial intelligence: key to saving our planet!

The current debate about artificial intelligence (AI) is as explosive as it is complex. On November 5, 2025, a new report from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Stockholm Resilience Center (SRC) was published that highlights the role of AI in the context of environmental and climate crises. Under the title “AI for a Planet Under Pressure,” the authors examined the opportunities and challenges of integrating AI into sustainability strategies. According to the report's findings, AI can not only improve the understanding of complex Earth systems, but also optimize decision-making processes and accelerate research on sustainability. It also becomes clear that the responsible and fair use of AI is of central importance in order to actually achieve positive effects without having to accept ecological and social setbacks.

What exactly does AI do in practice? The potential mentioned offers the opportunity to recognize patterns in environmental data and model risks more precisely. Nevertheless, the report emphasizes that AI alone cannot solve sustainability problems. Rather, a clear framework for action is required in order to minimize the ecological footprint of AI and not to lose sight of issues such as data bias and unequal distribution of computing capacity. Current efforts do not appear to be sufficiently focused on regions and communities at risk, necessitating a targeted research and policy response.

Necessary investments and interdisciplinary approaches

The authors of the report appeal to the responsibility of everyone involved, from researchers to companies to funders and decision-makers. There are calls for investments in energy-efficient and transparent AI applications to be given higher priority. At the same time, stronger interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration is necessary to exploit the synergies between AI and sustainability.

Another important aspect in the discussion about AI in environmental protection is highlighted by the publication by RESET.org under the title “Greenbook: Artificial Intelligence – Can we save our planet with computing power?” underlined. This publication focuses on the non-hodime social dialogue about the use of AI in the environmental sector and highlights the fact that the necessary framework conditions must be created for the positive development of AI in environmental and climate protection. Although AI technologies are already widespread in many areas of life and companies, the specific application in environmental and climate protection is still an exception. Social discourse often has a stronger focus on social-ethical issues, while ecological impacts are discussed less often.

Recommendations for sustainable AI

What steps are necessary to promote sustainable development in the field of AI? Suggestions for reducing the ecological footprint include, for example:

• den Einsatz effizienter Algorithmen und Hardware,
• die Wahl von Cloud-Anbietern, die grüne Energie nutzen,
• die Prüfung des Energieaufwands in der Entwicklung im Vergleich zu den Energieeinsparungen, die durch die Nutzung erzielt werden,
• die Förderung eines transparenten und partizipativen Umgangs mit KI-Systemen.

Equitable, public-interest deployment of AI systems is crucial to ensuring that technological advances do not lead to new inequalities.

In summary, it is clear that artificial intelligence can be a valuable tool in the fight against the climate crisis. However, ethical standards and clear framework conditions must be taken into account in order to make optimal use of the benefits for people and the environment. The path to sustainable digitalization requires both political action and commitment in research and companies in order to effectively address the challenges that lie before us. It remains to be hoped that the findings from the PIK report and the discussion about the responsible use of AI will be heard throughout society.