Africa turned out to be a significant focus for the initiative as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is among the selected organizations and will work with IBM to increase access to sustainable, affordable, and reliable energy in African countries.
IBMs’ artificial intelligence and geospatial analytics in corporations with UNDPs technical knowledge aim to forecast electricity access to better guide policy and investment decisions.
Organizations such as UNDP, Sustainable Energy for All, Net Zero Atlantic, Miyakojima City Government, and Environment Without Borders Foundation for this IBM Sustainability Accelerator environmental cohort IBM will donate $30M worth of services by 2023 through the IBM Sustainability Accelerator program.
IBM has previously announced it plans to select five organizations for this program each year and expects to provide $30 million worth of services by the end of 2023.
IBM announced the new members of its global pro bono social impact program, the IBM Sustainability Accelerator.
“With the IBM Sustainability Accelerator, we are convening experts and using innovative technologies to help tackle the toughest environmental challenges our planet faces; and transitioning to clean energy is a critical step right now,” said Justina Nixon-Saintil, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG at IBM.
A program of IBM technologies, entailing hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence, and an ecosystem of experts to enhance and scale projects focused on populations vulnerable to environmental threats, including climate change. All new members will focus on accelerating clean energy projects.
According to the International Energy Agency, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions to global supply chains, and diversion of fiscal resources to keep food and fuel prices affordable have affected the pace of progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 7) of ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030.
“With this new cohort, helping marginalized communities get just and equitable access to sustainable energy resources not only helps the world achieve the goal of UN SDG7 but can help in the larger global energy transition,” he added.
Some of the organziations selected to become part of the clean energy cohort include:
- United Nations Development Programme: UNDP is working with IBM to increase access to sustainable, affordable and reliable energy in African countries, focusing on those furthest left behind. The goal is to forecast electricity access to better guide policy and investment decisions, using UNDP’s technical knowledge and IBM’s artificial intelligence and geospatial analytics.
- Sustainable Energy for All: IBM is working with Sustainable Energy for All to build an intelligent model to project energy needs based on current and future human activity. This model will be designed to help to address key development challenges (e.g., lack of energy access and poor healthcare) and support the development of robust infrastructure planning, such as electrification plans. IBM machine learning and IBM Cloud technology and expertise will be used to build and scale open-access datasets and an energy needs model using temporal and spatial data. Kenya and India are being explored as the first regions to pilot the model.
- Net Zero Atlantic: Net Zero Atlantic is collaborating with IBM to create an interactive digital tool that will geospatially display the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of possible energy system futures for Nova Scotia. Ultimately, the goal is for Indigenous communities in Nova Scotia to leverage advanced modeling capabilities to inform their input into energy and development planning. The tool aims to be easy to use, locally relevant, and time efficient. It will be designed to produce easy-to-understand visual results using IBM technology such as the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite and IBM Cloud.
- Miyakojima City Government: The Miyakojima City Government is working with IBM to support the development of a renewable energy strategy including a microgrid on Miyakojima Island, a distant community facing severe climate issues due to typhoons in Japan, with the goal of helping their residents, who rely on a clean local environment for the tourist industry and agriculture. Miyakojima City Government and IBM will collaborate to leverage technologies such as IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite weather data and IBM Cloud to model electricity demand and advise energy infrastructure development.
- Environment Without Borders Foundation: Environment Without Borders Foundation’s collaboration with IBM will be aimed at developing a platform to forecast, track, and communicate clean energy usage options in Egypt. The goal is to enable resilient and sustainable infrastructure and operations for clean energy in Egypt, helping residents of remote villages for whom energy is currently both expensive and unreliable. The clean energy management platform will leverage IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite and IBM Cloud.
IBM emphasized that the selection was based on the organization’s commitment to supporting communities that are especially vulnerable to environmental threats, its ability to increase access to affordable clean energy services, and its strategic focus, and transparency on measurement and reporting, among others.
