Networks, narratives and neocoloniality of AI for Climate Action

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This article results from a cross-disciplinary study which unfolds the neocolonial nature of the application of AI technologies for climate action by examining the actors’ network and discourses around this global practice. The study demonstrates that tech businesses from the Global North are currently leading the AI for Climate Action project, with certain non-profits and civil society organisations helping these actors to advance their core profit-driven ambitions. They facilitate discourses, such as ‘leveraging AI’, ‘AI innovation’, and ‘responsible AI’ to build techno-solutionist narratives and concurrently legitimise their networked relationships and actions. Drawing from our exploratory findings, we bring the question of geopolitical power imbalance into the forefront of this AI for Climate Action discussion. We highlight the deeply problematic realities around this practice that includes the minimal participation of the Global South actors in accessing the critical digital infrastructures to build AI technologies and their lack of control over the strategic decisions around the applications of such technologies in their own climate contexts. We contend that AI for Climate Action, due to the Global North-centric corporate interests, further exacerbates climate injustice by marginalising the populations who are already disproportionately impacted by climate change.