CLAIM: Center for Climate Leadership and AI-driven Integrity in Mitigation

With the rapid rise of generative AI, misinformation, disinformation, and greenwashing are the biggest obstacles to utilizing AI for meaningful climate action. To address this, the Data-Driven EnviroLab (DDL) initialized CLAIM, the Center for Climate Leadership and AI-driven Integrity in Mitigation, a new center designed by an interdisciplinary team dedicated to increasing the transparency and integrity of climate commitments. In 2024, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded the DDL a planning grant to fund a year-long effort between the DDL team and collaborators to identify other key stakeholders, gather relevant data and research, design the center’s actionable ideas and plans, and draft a comprehensive guide to CLAIM’s approach.

The center has three primary goals:

1) Rigorously test and evaluate generative AI, large-language models, and machine-learning models to address misinformation, disinformation, and greenwashing.

2) Design metrics and benchmarks to evaluate the accuracy and credibility of generative AI information related to climate commitments.

3) Investigate the societal impacts of generative AI on corporate climate behaviors and actions.

Leveraging the expertise of computer scientists, social scientists, law and policy experts, and practitioners from various sectors, CLAIM will be uniquely positioned to help answer urgent questions about the opportunities and dangers AI poses to the world of climate action policy. The effort from the DDL team and collaborators will identify other key stakeholders, gather relevant data and research, design the center’s actionable ideas and plans, and draft a comprehensive guide to CLAIM’s approach. This project will engage a diverse team with collaborators from institutions including (but not limited to) Vanderbilt University, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, North Carolina A&T University, UN Climate Change, ClimateChangeAI, Arboretica, and more.

The NSF, in pursuit of its mission to build capacity to address compounding issues of national and global concern, provides funding for possible future Centers for Research and Innovation in Science, the Environment and Society (CRISES). The grant aims to fund research centers that will catalyze innovation on complex and compounding problems that face our society, including extreme weather, equity, sustainability, and more. CLAIM is one of the latest projects funded through an NSF CRISES grant.

Focus Groups

In planning these projects, we’re interested in public participation in focus groups intended to assess and consider the ideas and concerns of stakeholders in climate change and AI research. We’re hosting several 60-minute focus groups starting in late March.

By participating in a virtual focus group, you will:

• Identify key challenges and opportunities for AI in climate governance
• Help shape CLAIM’s research agenda
• Connect with a network of scholars, policymakers, and industry leaders
• Get involved in future CLAIM projects

Please sign up here via our short survey to join a focus group.

Background Readings

Evaluating ChatNetZero, an LLM-Chatbot to Demystify Climate Pledges

Group Leadership

Neik Gaikwad,
PhD
Data Science and Society, UNC Chapel Hill

Full Project Team

Maria João, Sousa, PhD
Executive Director, Climate Change AI

Robbert Biesbroek, PhD
Public Administration and Policy, Wageningen

Sara Constantino, PhD
Environmental Social Sciences, Stanford

Takeshi Kuramochi, PhD
Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo

Sponsors