AI for a planet under pressure
Editors: Victor Galaz & Maria Schewenius
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already driving scientific breakthroughs in a variety of research fields, ranging from the life sciences to mathematics. This raises a critical question: can AI be applied both responsibly and effectively to address complex and interconnected sustainability challenges?
This report explores the potential and limitations of using AI as a research method in eight issue areas: Preparing for a Future of Interconnected Shocks, Understanding a Complex Earth System, Stewarding Our Blue Planet, Securing Freshwater for All, Enhancing Nature’s Contributions to People, Prospering on an Urban Planet, Improving Sustainability Science Communication, and Collective Decisions for a Planet Under Pressure.
Explore all chapters of the report below, or download the report as a pdf pdf, 11.2 MB..
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Authors
Victor Galaz,1,2* Maria Schewenius, 1,2,6* Jonathan F. Donges,1,3,5 Ingo Fetzer,1,2,7 Erik Zhivkoplias,1 Wolfram Barfuss,9,10 Louis Delannoy,1,11,12 Lan Wang-Erlandsson,1,3 Maximilian Gelbrecht,3,13 Jobst Heitzig,3 Jonas Hentati-Sundberg,14 Christopher Kennedy,15 Nielja Knecht,1 Romi Lotcheris,1 Miguel Mahecha,16 Andrew Merrie,1,24 David Montero,16 Timon McPhearson,1,15 Ahmed Mustafa,15 Magnus Nyström,1 Juan C. Rocha,1 Masahiro Ryo,17,18 Samuel T. Segun,19 Anna B. Stephenson,20 Elizabeth Tellman,21 Felipe Tobar,22 Alice Vadrot23
*Editors
Affiliations
- Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Sweden
- Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Sweden
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Member of the Leibniz Association, Germany
- Google DeepMind, United Kingdom
- Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Germany
- Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, University of Gävle, Sweden
- Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm, Sweden
- Transdisciplinary Research Area Sustainable Futures, University of Bonn, Germany
- Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Germany
- Institute for Food and Resource Economics, University of Bonn, Germany
- Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Sweden
- Swedish Centre for Impacts of Climate Extremes (climes), Uppsala University, Sweden
- School of Engineering and Design, Technical University of Munich, Germany
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
- Urban Systems Lab, New York University, USA
- Institute for Earth System Science and Remote Sensing, Leipzig University, Germany
- Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany
- Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Germany
- Global Center on AI Governance, Canada
- High Meadows Environmental Institute, Princeton University, USA
- Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
- Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
- Department of Political Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria
- Planethon, Sweden
Suggested citation for the full report
Galaz, V. and M. Schewenius (eds, 2025). AI for a Planet Under Pressure. Stockholm Resilience Centre, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Stockholm. Report. Online: http://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24373.
Suggested citation for individual chapters in report (e.g.)
Wang-Erlandsson, L., N. Knecht, R. Lotcheris, I. Fetzer. “Securing Freshwater for All” in Galaz, V. and M. Schewenius (eds, 2025). AI for a Planet Under Pressure. Stockholm Resilience Centre, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Stockholm. Report.
See the full list of authors and their affiliations here.
This report is a collaboration by:
The work for this report was supported by additional funding from the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), and Google.org through ClimateIQ at the Urban Systems Lab at New York University (USA).
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