Energy & Sustainability

NEC-UNDP MoU positions AI as force for sustainability

NEC-UNDP MoU positions AI as force for sustainability

Can AI boost sustainability and combat climate change? A recent memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Japanese technology giant NEC Corporation implies that it can.

This MoU promotes cooperation towards the conservation and restoration of the natural environment and the realisation of sustainable local communities by combining UNDP's knowledge and networks in development assistance around the world with NEC's advanced digital technologies, including AI.

The two organisations will cooperate in a number of areas, one of which is the realisation and dissemination of knowledge for assessing and improving the resilience of AI and other digital technologies, digital infrastructure, and local communities based on environmental data.

Also on the agenda is the examination of, and cooperation on, the use of digital solutions that support nature-positive and climate-resilient development, along with the examination of approaches towards realising sustainable and resilient international supply chains for Japanese companies, including NEC, through collaboration with local communities.

In addition, the partners promise the joint dissemination of information to promote the use of digital technologies that contribute to biodiversity conservation and climate change measures, along with continuous dialogue and cooperation to create new opportunities for collaboration and advance joint initiatives.

As an initial area of cooperation under this MoU, the two organisations will jointly prepare and disseminate a white paper to assess, based on environmental data, the resilience of AI and digital infrastructure such as data centres, as well as supply chains and surrounding local communities, and to contribute to improving such resilience.

In addition, they will discuss possible forms of collaboration through workshops on data-driven agriculture using CropScope (an NEC system that innovates agricultural operations with digital agriculture) to support climate change adaptation for coffee farmers in Ethiopia. Beyond this the two organisations will continue to explore new areas of cooperation.

Through this MoU, UNDP and NEC say they will promote the conservation of natural capital, including biodiversity, and responses to climate change while appropriately and effectively utilising AI and other digital technologies, thereby, they add, contributing to the sustainable development of nature and society.



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