Artificial intelligence could address a key problem with carbon markets by helping ensure that environmental projects funded through the markets are effective at countering climate change, a new report says.
Machine intelligence could determine whether a project such as preserving a forest will actually reduce carbon emissions and is worthwhile. The determinations would address widespread criticism that carbon markets are funding projects with little climate benefit.
“AI is paving the way for a market that is reliable, ethical and robust,” said the report, published recently by Future Investment Initiative Institute, a Saudi Arabia-based nonprofit that advocates for AI.
The report says AI could help both the unregulated “voluntary” carbon market, in which corporations fund carbon-reduction projects to offset their own emissions, and government-run markets that force polluters to cut their emissions or pay for climate projects.
