̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Anil Madhavapeddy

Turbocharging the race to protect nature and climate with AI

lw355 — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 17:00:51 +0000

Rebalancing the planet must happen faster. Cambridge researchers are using AI to help.

Opinion: AI can help us heal the planet

lw355 — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 16:23:55 +0000

AI can do in seconds what might take a team of experts a year. This is why we must harness it to reverse the damage we’ve done to the planet. Anil Madhavapeddy explains.

Using AI to tackle society's biggest challenges

cjb250 — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 08:00:28 +0000

̽��ֱ��winners of a new prize supporting ambitious ideas for how artificial intelligence can address critical societal issues are announced today, with projects spanning fertility, climate change, language and communication challenges, mental health, and how local councils deploy AI.

Offset markets: new approach could help save tropical forests by restoring faith in carbon credits

jg533 — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 16:15:05 +0000

A new approach to valuing the carbon storage potential of natural habitats aims to help restore faith in offset schemes, by enabling investors to directly compare carbon credit pricing across a wide range of projects.

Current valuation methods for forest conservation projects have come under heavy scrutiny, leading to a crisis of confidence in carbon markets. This is hampering efforts to offset unavoidable carbon footprints, mitigate climate change, and scale up urgently needed investment in tropical forest conservation.

Measuring the value of carbon storage is not easy. Recent research revealed that as little as 6% of carbon credits from voluntary REDD+ schemes result in preserved forests. And the length of time these forests are preserved is critical to the climate benefits achieved.

Now, a team led by scientists at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has invented a more reliable and transparent way of estimating the benefit of carbon stored because of forest conservation.

̽��ֱ��method is published today in the journal Nature Climate Change. In it, the researchers argue that saving tropical forests is not only vital for biodiversity, but also a much less expensive way of balancing emissions than most of the current carbon capture and storage technologies.

̽��ֱ��new approach works a bit like a lease agreement: carbon credits are issued to tropical forest projects that store carbon for a predicted amount of time. ̽��ֱ��valuation is front-loaded, because more trees protected now means less carbon released to the atmosphere straight away.

̽��ֱ��technique involves deliberately pessimistic predictions of when stored carbon might be released, so that the number of credits issued is conservative. But because forests can now be monitored by remote sensing, if projects do better than predicted – which they usually will – they can be rewarded through the issue of further credits.

̽��ֱ��payments encourage local people to protect forests: the carbon finance they receive can help provide alternative livelihoods that don’t involve cutting down trees.

And by allowing for future payments, the new method generates incentives for safeguarding forests long after credits have been issued. This contrasts with the current approach, which passes on a burden for conservation to future generations without compensation for lost livelihoods.

̽��ֱ��approach also allows different types of conservation projects to be compared in a like-for-like manner.

“Until now there hasn’t been a satisfactory way of directly comparing technological solutions with nature-based solutions for carbon capture. This has caused a lack of enthusiasm for investing in carbon credits linked to tropical forest protection,” said Dr Tom Swinfield, a researcher in the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and senior author of the study.

He added: “Tropical forests are being cleared so quickly that if we don’t protect them now, we’re not going to make the vital progress we need towards net-zero. Buying carbon credits linked to their protection is one of the best ways to do this.”

Tropical forests play a key role in taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, helping to reduce global warming and avert climate catastrophe. But the carbon they capture is not taken out of the atmosphere permanently: forests can be destroyed by pests, floods, fire, wind – and by human clearance.

This impermanence, and therefore the difficulty of reliably measuring the long-term climate benefit of tropical forest protection, has made it an unattractive proposition for investors wanting to offset their carbon emissions.

And this is despite it being a far cheaper investment than more permanent, technology-based methods of carbon capture and storage.

Protection of tropical forests, a nature-based solution to climate change, comes with additional benefits: helping to conserve biodiversity, and supporting the livelihoods of people living near the forests.

“Nature-based carbon solutions are highly undervalued right now because the market doesn’t know how to account for the fact that forests aren’t a permanent carbon storage solution. Our method takes away a lot of the uncertainties,” said Anil Madhavapeddy, a Professor in the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Department of Computer Science and Technology, who was involved in the study.

̽��ֱ��new method, developed by scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Exeter and the London School of Economics, is called ‘Permanent Additional Carbon Tonne' (PACT) accounting, and can be used to value a wide range of nature-based solutions.

“Carbon finance is a way for us – the carbon emitters of the richer world – to direct funds towards rural communities in the tropics so they can get more out of the land they have, without cutting down more trees,” said Andrew Balmford, Professor of Conservation Science at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and first author of the paper.

Co-author Srinivasan Keshav, Robert Sansom Professor of Computer Science at Cambridge added: “Our new approach has the potential to address market concerns around nature-based solutions to carbon offsetting, and lead to desperately needed investment.”

Conversion of tropical forest to agricultural land results in vast carbon emissions. Around 30% of all progress towards the ambitious net-zero commitments made at COP26 is reliant on better management of carbon in nature.

Other carbon credit investment options include technologies that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock it deep in the Earth for hundreds of years. These permanent storage options may currently be easier to value, say the researchers, but they typically cost substantially more than nature-based solutions and do nothing to protect natural habitats that are vital in regulating the global climate and mitigating the extinction crisis.

̽��ֱ��research was funded primarily by the Tezos Foundation. It was conducted by researchers at the Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits.

Reference: Balmford, A et al.: ‘Realising the social value of impermanent carbon credits.’ Nature Climate Change, October 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01815-0

Cambridge Zero highlights ̽��ֱ�� efforts at Climate Week NYC

plc32 — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 14:29:51 +0000

Cambridge Zero Director Professor Emily Shuckburgh took centre stage at the world's biggest climate event of its kind in New York to talk to global leaders of government, business and philanthropy about Cambridge’s efforts to tackle climate change.

At the opening ceremony of Climate Week NYC, Professor Shuckburgh offered a glimpse of optimism and urged everyone assembled to press on with implementing the urgent efforts needed this decade to tackle climate change.

"We have all the building blocks...we just simply haven't put them together, yet," she said.

Professor Shuckburgh appeared at Climate Week's main stage for one of the key discussions on the "New frontiers of Climate Action". Joining her were:

Helen Clarkson (Corpus Christi 1993) Chief Executive Officer of the Climate Group which organises Climate Week

Kate Brandt (Selwyn 2007) Chief Sustainability Officer of Google

Judith Weise Chief People & Sustainability Officer of Siemens AG

̽��ֱ��four women discussed the innovation and investment needed to achieve net zero. In particular, Professor Shuckburgh talked about what the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is doing.

She mentioned Cambridge research on materials, batteries, photovoltaics, the Cambridge ecosystem for innovation, including Cambridge research on AI, aviation, the Centre for Landscape Regeneration and the ground-breaking work of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative.

She also mentioned how Cambridge is making efforts to support a more just transition around the world with the support of the Mastercard Foundation Programme with African institutions and scholars.

"Green innovation is going to be absolutely essential to our future...[and] one of the things we've been talking a lot about in Cambridge is not just how we can ensure that we are benefiting the UK, but also how we can collaborate externally."

Climate Week NYC takes place in partnership with the United Nations General Assembly and is run in coordination with the United Nations and the City of New York. It is the largest annual climate event of its kind, bringing together some 400 events and activities across the City of New York – in person, hybrid and online.

This year it centred around the UN General Assembly, the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Ambition Summit as well as hundreds of national government, business and climate group initiatives, making it a unique opportunity for Cambridge to communicate with the world.

On Wednesday evening, just hours after the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Ambition Summit concluded at the nearby headquarters of the United Nations, Professor Shuckburgh took part in Mission Possible: Creating a Better Planetary Future, an alumni event hosted by Cambridge in America at the Morgan Library in New York.

Professor Shuckburgh was joined by Professor of Planetary Computing Anil Madhavapeddy (Pembroke) and Fiona Macklin (St John’s 2012), Senior Adviser to Groundswell, a joint initiative between Bezos Earth Fund, Global Optimism and the Systems Change Lab.

̽��ֱ��panel focused on the technological and behavioural solutions available to build a sustainable future for the whole planet and was chaired by Professor Matthew Connelly, the new Director of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

“Our alumni network is one of Cambridge’s greatest pillars of support and with their help the ̽��ֱ�� is able to amplify its work, linking one of the world’s top research universities to peer institutions, policymakers and business leaders,” Professor Shuckburgh said.

Throughout the visit to New York, Professor Shuckburgh met with dozens of supporters, policymakers, business, industry and climate leaders in a packed schedule, with only brief moments to spare.

During a brief interlude between engagements, she managed to show up and support new initiative Climate Basecamp, which sponsored an "endangered flavors" ice cream stand at Union Square with TV screenwriter Chuck Tatham, whose hits include: Modern Family, Arrested Development and How I Met Your Mother.

While there she also shared a selfie and a chat with fellow climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe.

We have all the building blocks...we just simply haven't put them together, yet

Prof Emily Shuckburgh

Facing ̽��ֱ��New Reality - Climate Week NYC Opening Ceremony

Credit: Paul Casciato/ ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

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Cambridge-built carbon credit marketplace will support reforestation

sc604 — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 11:58:35 +0000

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits (4C) - based in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute - has two primary goals: to support students and researchers in the relevant areas of computer science, environmental science, and economics; and to create a decentralised marketplace where purchasers of carbon credits can confidently and directly fund trusted nature-based projects.

̽��ֱ��Centre will build its decentralised marketplace on the energy-efficient Tezos blockchain because it operates sustainably and allows third parties to verify all transactions, in line with the Centre’s vision to support a sustainable future through technology. ̽��ֱ��goal of the marketplace is to exponentially increase the number of real nature-based conservation and restoration projects by channelling funding towards them via market-based instruments.

Nature-based solutions, particularly forests, have a vital role to play in mitigating the worst effects of climate change. Pressure is mounting from governments and the public to rapidly roll out a global programme of well-executed nature-based solutions (NbS) to sequester several gigatons of carbon each year and protect biodiversity. However, current NbS projects are hampered by chronic underfunding.

“Current accreditation systems that measure and report the value of carbon and related benefits like biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction rendered by NbS are costly, slow and inaccurate,” said Centre Director Dr Anil Madhavapeddy. “These systems have undermined trust in NbS carbon credits. What is needed is a decentralised marketplace where purchasers of carbon credits can confidently and directly fund trusted nature-based projects. And that’s the gap the Centre is aiming to fill.”

̽��ֱ��Centre will support 12 PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, and investment to prototype a scalable, trusted NbS marketplace. Researchers funded from the Centre will come from the Departments of Computer Science and Technology, Zoology, and Plant Sciences, as well as from the Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence for the study of Environment Risk.

Professor David Coomes, Director of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, said: “Conservation strategies are increasingly broadening to include large datasets, remote sensing technologies and computational approaches. ̽��ֱ��Centre for Carbon Credits is a ground-breaking initiative that will bring together computer scientists and conservation scientists in a new way.”

Andrew Balmford, Professor of Zoology, said: “ ̽��ֱ��recent announcement at COP26 of the new commitment to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 demonstrates the crucial role forests play in carbon capture and the health of our planet. ̽��ֱ��new Centre has a significant role to play in supporting crucial research to develop new, trusted mechanisms to support reforestation projects.”

Speaking on the collaborative nature of the Centre, Professor Ann Copestake, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Technology, said: “In the last few years, we’ve been expanding our emphasis on the use of computer science techniques and technologies to help address the climate emergency and the crisis in biodiversity. We are delighted to be bringing our research strengths together with the expertise in environmental science across the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. We hope the work resulting from this interdisciplinary collaboration will lay the foundation for tangible solutions to some of the environmental challenges facing the world.”

A new Cambridge centre will bring together computer scientists and conservation scientists to build a trusted marketplace for carbon credits and support global reforestation efforts, the first initiative of its kind in the UK.

What's needed is a decentralised marketplace where purchasers of carbon credits can confidently and directly fund trusted nature-based projects. And that’s the gap the Centre is aiming to fill

Anil Madhavapeddy

kazuend via Unsplash

View of forest

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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