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Climate and digitalisation

This climate action research area focuses on the application of deep learning, AI, big data, ICT, and related topics.

Research projects

Bridging Climate Action and Sustainable Development: Advanced Assessment Tools for Global Infrastructure Projects, a KTH and UNOPS collaboration

Climate action infrastructure projects (comprising mitigation and adaptation objectives) to achieve the Paris agreement have a wide range of synergies and trade-offs with the Sustainable Development Goals. However, stakeholders have limited access to the knowledge for mitigating those impacts, including on the impacts of relevant climate risks. This myopic approach means that siloed-planned climate action may cause a variety of detrimental tradeoffs, from social unrest or inequality to other environmental and economic issues. In response, KTH researchers have developed leading tools to assess the sustainability of infrastructure projects using detailed analysis of interlinkages between the characteristics of various types of energy and infrastructure projects and all social, economic and environmental targets of the SDGs.

Our project partner (United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)) supports 2.3 billion USD/year of infrastructure projects in more than 80 countries and has similarly developed tools tailored to infrastructure project managers in various contexts around the world to ensure sustainability across project lifecycles. Within the scope of this proposed project, KTH and UNOPS will work together to shape and further develop these tools, improving them with years of rigorous academic research and analysis, and will test and make them available for implementation through thousands of project managers across the wider UNOPS community.

Francesco Fuso-Nerini
Francesco Fuso-Nerini associate professor
Daniel Adshead
Daniel Adshead postdoc

Capturing carbon emissions and costs in the World Bank Global Electrification Platform

Meeting sustainable development target 7.1 on ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services, is fundamental for improving the livelihoods of people. Nonetheless, around 750 million people still lack electricity access today. To breach this gap, the Global Electrification Platform (GEP) (https://electrifynow.energydata.info/) has developed pathways to achieve universal electricity access across selected countries. To date, GEP has presented its pathways in the form of investment scenarios composed of different combinations of "levers" as costing parameters, demand targets and uses, and technical constraints of the system. However, as socio-economic development historically has been coupled with increasing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), expanding access to electricity services may increase the reliance on fossil fuels for power generation (depending on the fuel-technology mixes), causing an increase in carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Therefore, there is a need to account for emissions when developing electrification pathways. This is especially important now, as global climate agreements advance, and considerable climate finance flows can be leveraged for advancing low-carbon energy access efforts.

In this project we investigated how electrification can affect greenhouse gases emissions, given a set of assumptions about how the power generation system of the countries may change in the future. Including such parameters as "levers" would also affect the outcomes, i.e. aligning electrification targets with the Climate Action Agenda.

Francesco Fuso-Nerini
Francesco Fuso-Nerini associate professor

Language Models for Functional Digital Twin of Circular Manufacturing

In industrial symbioses, downstream processes are functionally dependent on the byproducts of upstream manufacturing systems. This project develops AI language model-powered tools for mapping functional similarities along processes to facilitate bidirectional communication and preserve circularity during unexpected disruptions, with a case study in bioplastics dependent on byproducts from the agro-food industry.

An Ethical Framework for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Cities

We propose an ethical framework to empower individuals centered on the cities and interconnected with the socioeconomic ecosystem and the environment through the complex relationships of the SDGs

Ricardo Vinuesa Motilva
Ricardo Vinuesa Motilva associate professor

HITS 2024 - Increase system efficiency in terms of increased use of vehicles and infrastructure

This project aims to accelerate the development of an efficient and sustainable urban freight transport system.

Integrating Telia Crowd Insight-data (mobile telephone movement in the transport system) with CERO model

Learn more about the project: Telia launches service for determining CO2 emissions from road passenger transport (Teliacompany.com)

Markus Robért
Markus Robért researcher

 DEEPCONTROL

Discovering novel control strategies for turbulent wings through deep reinforcement learning

Ricardo Vinuesa Motilva
Ricardo Vinuesa Motilva associate professor

Optimal electric vehicle charging schedules in energy communities

Learn more about the project: Chitchai Srithapon: Project

chitchai

Smart City Concepts in Curitiba – low-carbon transport and mobility in a digital society

This project explores the transformational change needed to make urban transport and mobility more energy efficient, low-carbon and sustainable. Read more about the project: Smart City Concepts in Curitiba (chalmers.se)

Maryna Henrysson
Maryna Henrysson assistant professor, researcher

Mistra SAMS Sustainable Accessibility and Mobility Services studies

This project focuses on digitally supported services for accessibility and mobility, to understand their potential to transform society and contribute to sustainability. Learn more about the project: Mistra SAMS

Mia Hesselgren
Mia Hesselgren assistant professor, researcher