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Evidence-based Application of AI to Advance Climate Action

This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of 51社区黑料researchers to explore how AI can support community climate action, infrastructure planning, and inclusive regional development. The team combines expertise in energy systems, policy, sustainability and economic development, low carbon resilience, and the social and practical dimensions of AI.

The project will lay the groundwork for a national research program on climate-aligned digital infrastructure, supported by engagement with communities, governments, and sectors. It advances SFU鈥檚 vision for engaged climate innovation by focusing on three urgent, transdisciplinary research areas:

  1.  Understanding the environmental impacts and climate vulnerabilities of AI infrastructure, including energy and water use, material demands, and exposure to wildfire, floods, and extreme heat;
  2. Critically assessing ways AI can help accelerate zero-emissions mobility and smart, resilient infrastructure through tools such as dynamic routing, adaptive public transit, and intelligent building systems; and
  3. Exploring how green AI clusters (e.g., sustainably sited low-carbon resilient data centres) might serve as economic anchors for rural and remote communities, especially in regions seeking post-carbon development strategies during an era in which Canada intends to redefine itself as an energy superpower trading with the international community.

Project Status: Active

Funding Support: 51社区黑料Climate Innovation Seed Funds (2025): Amplifcation Grant; FASS Breaking Barriers Grant

Project Lead: William Scott, 51社区黑料School of Public Policy

Co-creation Partners

  • Stephanie Dick, 51社区黑料School of Communications
  • Fred Popowich, SFU's Big Data Hub
  • Deborah Harford, DoT, 51社区黑料Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
  • Metro Vancouver
  • Urban Climate Leadership
  • BC Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions
  • Community Energy Association

Expected Outcomes

This project will establish the foundations and practical pathways forward for responsible, community-informed AI development in service of climate action in Canada. Focus areas include policy and planning to drive short- and long-term equitable, sustainable approaches to reducing climate risk and emissions, building rural economic opportunities, and guidance for dataset use and development as well as upcoming grid and other infrastructure design and operations, all of which will be crucial as we move into an era of federal investment in national power generation and transmission, and rural community and economic revitalization.  

  • Reduced emissions and energy demand: Through applied analysis of regional energy datasets and smart infrastructure scenarios, the project will identify AI-enabled strategies to optimize building performance, transit systems, and electricity usage.
  • Reduced community vulnerability and climate risk: Research will explore how AI infrastructure (e.g., data centres) interacts with grid connections, water use, wildfire and flood exposure, and materials sourcing, highlighting ways to reduce both AI's own environmental impacts and climate risk, and supporting the health of both humans and biodiversity in developing regions.
  • Pathways to inclusive job creation and rural development: By examining the siting of green AI infrastructure, such as renewables-powered data centres, the project will inform future strategies for equitable innovation and economic diversification in under-served regions, while benefiting federal priorities on grid development and the movement of natural resources products such as mining.
  • Foundations for ethical and climate-smart digital governance: This initiative will help shape policy and planning tools that ensure AI-aligned datasets and their deployment are ethically structured, transparent, locally beneficial, and climate-aligned.

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