COP28 ITU Event: Crowdsourcing Artificial Intelligence for Climate Change Keynote Address

COP28

 

ITU Event:

Crowdsourcing Artificial Intelligence for Climate Change

Keynote Address

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

 

2 December 2023

 

 

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Thank you to the ITU for organizing this event - an initiative that is close to my heart. Science and innovation are crucial elements of my vision for FAO. They are instrumental in building a better future. And critical in the fight against the climate crisis.

 

FAO’s first-ever Science and Innovation Strategy directs FAO’s efforts to strengthen the role of science and innovation cross the Organization’s work. And it reinforces FAO’s Strategy on Climate Change.

 

Artificial Intelligence - AI - is on the cutting edge of innovations in the business and development world, and we should harness its potential to revolutionize agrifood sectors.

 

We use AI daily for our service, and we should use it in the same way for the transformation of agrifood systems - to service smallholder farmers and producers struggling with the impacts of the climate crisis.

 

Big data fed into predictive models can advise farmers when to prepare land, harvest crops, and go to market.

 

AI can help prevent loss and damage in agrifood sectors and increase efficiency, precision, and sustainability.

 

Agrifood systems solutions are climate solutions, and AI can scale up these solutions!

 

We need three elements for AI to reach its full potential:

 

One, AI must be accessible to all.

 

The transformation to more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable agrifood systems must be equitable and gender responsive. For effective transformation and rural development, AI end users must be farmers and producers. They need the capacity and accessible infrastructure to use AI products – otherwise AI will deepen the digital divide instead of increasing prosperity for all.

 

Two, AI needs high quality and high quantity data.

 

AI models are hungry for data, but this data must be accurate. AI models perform better in high-income countries because they have more data, but we need AI models to perform in the most vulnerable countries too. We need to help countries increase their capacity on data collection and processing for equitable climate action. The outputs from AI are only as good as the inputs.

 

Three, AI needs to be safe and ethical.

 

AI is a powerful engine, and it needs to be steered with strong institutions, good governance, political will, enabling regulatory frameworks, and effective measures to promote equity. We must facilitate and develop standards around AI governance and management.  This is why FAO became one of the first organizations to sign the Rome Call for AI Ethics.

 

The Earth Map initiative captures all these elements. FAO developed Earth Map, in partnership with Google, to process and analyze satellite imagery and global datasets on climate, vegetation, and biodiversity.

 

Bloom Africa is a start-up that will help FAO make Earth Map more easily accessible and user-friendly. We are proud to bring Bloom Africa here and to partner with the ITU’s AI for Good initiative to elevate solutions for more accessible, effective, and safe digital innovations.

 

The new Digital FAO is excited to create with you the agriculture of the future. With better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life – leaving no one behind.

 

Thank you.