The AI build out is a digital twin of the green transition. This session will explore how AI can accelerate climate solutions and decarbonization efforts, while examining the tensions surrounding AI’s energy use, data infrastructure, resource demands, and unintended consequences.

Speaker: Gernot Wagner, Faculty Director, Climate Knowledge Initiative, Columbia Business School

Gernot Wagner is a climate economist at Columbia Business School and faculty director of its Climate Knowledge Initiative. He has written six books, including Climate Shock and, most recently, Geoengineering: the Gamble. Gernot’s research, writing, and teaching focus on climate risks, technologies, and policy. He is a research fellow at CEPR, faculty fellow at CESifo, board member of CarbonPlan, Project Syndicate columnist, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and Financial Times, among others. Gernot holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard, an M.A. in Economics from Stanford.