While climate targets continue to multiply, so do the questions about the truths they obscure. As countries, cities, and corporations pledge net-zero goals, stakeholders need tools that do more than translate jargon. They need intelligent systems that can cut through complexity, trace the data behind the promise, and separate meaningful climate action from strategic ambiguity. That is precisely what ChatNetZero 2.0 does.
DDL, partnering with Arboretica, developed ChatNetZero 2.0 with funding from a seed grant from UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Data Science and Society (SDSS). A beta version of the tool was launched in September 2023 at the United Nations’ Climate Week and was designed to be an AI application dedicated to demystifying climate commitments set by governments and companies. It featured an “anti-hallucination” algorithm to prevent false response generation as well as references to each curated document it created responses from. Learn more about the project goals on our CNZ Project page.
The five primary functionalities of ChatNetZero 2.0.
New Features
We’ve now updated the beta and are proud to introduce ChatNetZero 2.0. The updated chatbot features the latest scientific data and documents evaluating net-zero pledges from more than 4,000 entities on the Net Zero Tracker, including all national governments, large regional governments in the G-20, cities over 500,000 in population and the Forbes 2000 largest publicly-listed companies. It also includes an updated, fine-tuned and validated model that produces higher fidelity responses to avoid hallucinations and embellishments.
For example, when asked whether a company’s net-zero pledge is “credible,” ChatNetZero 2.0 declines to provide a normative judgment and instead responds: “While ChatNetZero is not designed to conduct a scientific assessment of an actor’s net zero targets, here are some facts for you to evaluate:.” ChatNetZero 2.0’ prioritizes facts and evidence over opinions to provide a more stable, robust evaluation of net zero and climate pledges.
In addition to the updated model and data, ChatNetZero 2.0 also features a new Data Catalog feature that allows users to ask specific questions of a range of policy and corporate strategy documents, including countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), long-term low-emissions development strategies, subnational climate plans, and corporate sustainability reports. Instead of receiving ChatNetZero’s evaluation of Apple or Amazon’s net-zero pledge, users can now directly interact with their latest corporate sustainability reports and ask specific questions to receive answers specifically from these documents.
ChatNetZero 2.0’s new Data Catalogue feature allows users to directly ask questions of 2,030 documents.
What’s next?
We have some exciting new features in development, including a Chain of Thought greenwashing risk detection tool that will provide greater transparency into how chatbots like ChatNetZero might help detect whether companies or governments might be missing out on critical components of credibility in their climate strategies. We are also actively evaluating the climate and environmental footprint of ChatNetZero’s queries to evaluate how the tool might compare to traditional Internet searches. Stay tuned for more – through our newsletter or by signing up to attend our May 27 event: Climate Action in the Age of AI: Can Intelligent Systems Save the Planet?
