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Published on December 12, 2022

December 2022

Dahdaleh Institute Research Fellow James Stinson and DI Graduate Research Assistant Lee Mcloughlin have recently published their recent work on the promotion of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, as solutions to biodiversity and climate crises at COP conferences in The Conversation.

Stinson, J. & Mcloughlin, L (2022, December 12). Digital technologies for biodiversity protection and climate action: solution or COP out?. The Conversation.

This article is republished from  under a Creative Commons license.

With biodiversity declining at  and less than a decade remaining to avert the worst effects of climate change, world leaders and policymakers are on the hunt for new and innovative solutions. In the halls and meeting rooms of global COP conferences, digital technologies have been heavily promoted to .

At the recent COP27 climate conference in Egypt,  — a global consortium co-ordinated by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, NASA, Google and Unilever —  to unlock the value of land use data to protect and restore nature.” The WRI promoted its  to measure carbon stocks associated with land use.

Nature4Climate — a coalition of 20 environmental organizations — revealed a new  to help implement natural climate solutions. They also exhibited a  on the “nature tech market.” At the COP15 biodiversity conference in Montréal, , a provider of nature intelligence technology,  to enable standardized measurements of the health of ecosystems.

Many, however, see such efforts as a  to get untried and untested corporate technologies accepted as “nature-positive solutions” in the Convention on Biological Diversity and climate negotiations.

As researchers examining the role of technologies in biodiversity monitoring and protected area management, we find that these digital technologies have the potential to yield positive results, if co-developed and used ethically with Indigenous Peoples.

Conservation and Big Tech

The  has grown considerably over the past decade. Tech giants like Microsoft, ,  and , as well as philanthropic counterparts like the , have invested significantly in technologies to address global environmental issues.

Microsoft’s $50 million “” program, for instance, aims to “transform the way we monitor, model and ultimately manage Earth’s natural resources through grants, technology and access to data.” Such programs, including , have helped establish partnerships involving philanthropic, academic, non-governmental, public and private sector institutions.

They not only transform conservation, but natural environments as well. The  throughout natural environments, from satellites and aerial sensors to drones, camera traps and wearable sensors, has transformed the  into an ,  and .

In our new economic context, in which , such technologies also transform the world’s forests and oceans into .

Climate action or corporate greenwashing?

Critics warn, however, that these techno-centric solutions are simply  and that they actually . While Microsoft, Amazon and Google tout the use of their technologies for environmental good, they continue to  around the world.

Research on  shows that it greenwashes Microsoft’s corporate reputation, while its cloud computing and  to help oil companies better extract and distribute oil. Its vast data centres also use , much of which comes from fossil fuels.

While Microsoft does attempt to offset its emissions by investing in , its carbon offsets have literally gone up in smoke in recent wildfires.

Similar  and its environmental programs. While Amazon Web Services advertises its , the company continues to drive greenhouse gas emissions by offering its cloud computing and AI services to the .

In a , the environmental organization Greenpeace argued that it is “nothing but a green light for eight more years of forest destruction, with little respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.” It also argued that this allows polluters to do more business as usual through “carbon trickery instead of advancing true climate action.”

Technology for a just and sustainable future

At COP15 there has been a critical parallel movement to support  to meet global biodiversity and climate change commitments.

Making up just five per cent of the global population, Indigenous Peoples steward  and .

Digital technologies, however, often  by supporting a shift toward more  that position communities as targets of surveillance and policing.

Given these concerns, it is important to think critically about the role of digital technologies in global biodiversity and climate frameworks. Can , climate action and reconciliation with the Earth?

The first step to this would include . Digital tools must not be used to maintain the status quo by  and corporate profits. Instead, they need to be  and land defenders to protect their rights to — and control over — the environments they cultivate, care for and protect.

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