Across the Majority World, communities, grassroots organizations, and non-profit actors are building AI systems to address climate justice. However, many remain overlooked or underrepresented in global conversations about AI and climate.
As part of our AI for Climate Action initiative, which explores how AI technologies can be re-imagined and re-directed by centering locally developed, and community-centered models in Majority World contexts, we will conduct research to explore AI adoption in the context of climate action. Over the next two months, we will map twelve case studies of AI tools developed, adapted or led by non-profit organizations, local researchers, grassroots cooperatives and other non-state or community actors to address climate challenges.
Mapping AI for climate action in the Global Majority
Our approach to finding and selecting these case studies is guided by a climate justice lens. By mapping these cases, we aim to understand and highlight how communities most affected by climate change are at the frontlines of innovation, exercising agency and developing grounded, locally relevant responses in contexts of injustice. We are particularly interested in less documented but meaningful cases of AI adoption and adaptation that showcase what a community-centered approach to AI can support climate action in contexts of crisis but also of possibility.
We are looking for cases that are:
- Based in Latin America, Africa, and Asia (with a focus on South, Southeast, and Southwest Asia)
- Led by community-based actors throughout the AI lifecycle. This includes a form of meaningful participation in the design, development, deployment or decommissioning of the tool
- Using AI tools or systems that are responsive to specific cultural, social, and infrastructural contexts. This includes AI tools used in environments with limited access to hardware, infrastructure, or reliable connectivity (e.g. frugal AI, TinyML or small AI, low-tech or edge AI, minimal computing or similar)
- Designed or adopted to contribute to climate action. This may include, but is not limited to, environmental monitoring, climate adaptation tools, climate education, advocacy efforts, or other approaches addressing climate challenges.
After identifying the case studies, we will conduct in-depth interviews with practitioners, developers, and researchers, to understand not only the characteristics of the tools they have chosen to adopt, but also the stories, relationships and negotiations behind these choices. We will pay close attention to whose knowledge informs these systems, makes decisions about their use, and how benefits and risks are assessed and governed across the AI lifecycle.
Get involved: Share initiatives with us
If you are working on or experimenting with AI for climate action, or if you know of initiatives we should learn from, we invite you to participate in this research. Even if you have only heard of a case through word of mouth, or if an initiative is still in development, we would love to learn about it. You can share an initiative by completing our survey [available in: ES, PT, FR] or by sharing this call in your networks doing relevant work.
Get involved: Searching for consultants
We are also seeking three experienced qualitative researchers to support this work.
These roles involve conducting multilingual desk and primary research across three target regions: South Asia, South East Asia and South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA). Consultants will draw on their contextual knowledge to identify relevant case studies, conduct interviews, and synthesize findings into case studies in regionally relevant languages.
You can find more information about the Terms of Reference here.