The world’s first climate target chatbot and a tool that automatically evaluates corporate net zero plans are just two ways AI is being used to hold organisations to account on their climate progress.
ChatNetZero, an online chatbot designed to determine the credibility of decarbonisation targets and plans by major businesses, governments and financial institutions, was launched at New York Climate Week in September.
The tool uses the same artificial intelligence (AI) that underpins popular chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard, but is specifically trained on a live database tracking thousands of public decarbonisation goals.
The chatbot can accurately answer questions about climate and net zero commitments for nearly 200 countries, every region in the largest 25 emitting nations, every city with over 500,000 inhabitants, and the 2,000 largest publicly listed companies in the world. It can also answer questions about broader net zero topics such as carbon offsets.
‘We hope to increase transparency’
The long-term plan is to develop the tool further so that users can upload a climate strategy or policy document themselves and see how their efforts compare against others.
“We – the public, governments, civil society and businesses – need credible information to decipher who is doing what and doing it in a robust and meaningful way. That’s where ChatNetZero comes in,” explained Dr Angel Hsu, director of Data-Driven Envirolab (DDL), which collaborated on the tool.
“By providing a gateway to the world’s largest living database on the integrity of net zero commitments, we hope to increase transparency and, in turn, boost ambition and real action.”
Screening for greenwashing
Environmental group WWF also recently launched an AI tool to help financial institutions and asset managers assess whether companies’ climate transition plans are robust, science-based and have a credible pathway to net zero.
Co-produced with the Universities of Zürich and Oxford, the tool acts a first screening method to ‘red flag’ possible instances of greenwashing, allowing investors and regulators a way to quickly assess climate-related claims and single out companies suspected of greenwashing for more in-depth assessment.
A similar AI model created by sustainability analytics company Permutable AI earlier this year was used to track climate-related announcements from FTSE100 organisations. It found that more than half do not have data available and less than a fifth are on course to meet their net zero targets.
The WWF tool follows the structure of ChatReport, another AI that allows people to ask questions about climate science based on the climate reports produced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The WWF tool follows the structure of ChatReport, another AI that allows people to ask questions about climate science based on the climate reports produced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
