Panel: Financing AI for Climate Thursday October 26 - 4:45-5:30 ET/1:45-2:30 PT (in person, online zoom) Moderator: Jim Spohrer, program committee member (https://www.linkedin.com/in/spohrer/) Co-Organizer: Peetak Mitra (https://www.linkedin.com/in/peetak/) [we should have 1-2 slide from you about you and your company, I can present for you or run a short video] Panelist: James E. Mister (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmister/) Panelist: Honour Masters (https://www.linkedin.com/in/honour-masters-20428753/) Panelist: Matthew Blain (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-blain-vc/) Panelist: Sylvia Spengler (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvia-spengler-26805650/) Panelist: Erica Briscoe (https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-briscoe-702a4511/) AAAI FSS conference website: https://aaai.org/conference/fall-symposia/aaai-2023-fall-symposium-series/ AI & Climate subconference series: https://www.climatechange.ai/events/aaaifss2023

1. Artificial Intelligence and Climate:
The Role of AI in a Climate-Smart Sustainable Future
AAAI 2023 - Fall Symposium Series
October 25-27, 2023
Arlington, VA USA and online
AAAI FSS: https://aaai.org/conference/fall-symposia/aaai-2023-fall-symposium-series/
AI & Climate: https://www.climatechange.ai/events/aaaifss2023

2. Jim Spohrer
ISSIP.org
Panel: Financing and Investing In
A Climate-Smart Sustainable Future
Moderator Co-organizer
Peetak Mitra
Excarta
James E. Mister
Bavarian US
Offices
Honour Masters
Energize Capital
Matthew Blain
Voyager
Sylvia Spengler
NSF
Our five panelists…
Thursday October 26, 2012 – 4:45-5:30pm ET/1:45-2:30pm PT
Erica Briscoe
DARPA

3. We are reading more about AI & Climate…

4. But decarbonization
will cost a lot…
• Smil V (2022) Taming the
Climate Is Far Harder Than
Getting People to the Moon.
IEEE Spectrum
10/21/23 Jim Spohrer (ISSIP.org) 4

5. And some say AI is a growing part of the problem…

6. And costs may be heading up…
From: The Neuron – Daily AI Newsletter

7. “NorthPole Chip”
Far less energy.

8. Now 5 minutes each - five perspectives, then Q&A
Panel: Financing and Investing In
A Climate-Smart Sustainable Future
Erica Briscoe
DARPA
At Event in DC

9. A bit about me…
As Head of the Foreign Representative Office of Germany’s largest
state (Bavaria) in the U.S. and a senior investment & trade official,
I have supported more than $3B in bilateral economic value
creation between the E.U. and the U.S.
I am also product and policy advisor on climate risk, carbon
mitigation, and clean energy, so support the work of
policymakers, scientists & engineers, corporate early movers,
institutional investors, and project financiers.
My expertise lies in the decarbonization of the energy and natural
resource sector, mobility/transport, and heavy industry and my
work has been featured in Inc. Magazine, Forbes, TechCrunch,
CHIP, VC publications, and multinational firms like BMW.

10. Financing A.I. for Climate Change - 2022 BCG Report
87% of experts believe
A.I. is “climate critical”
Use cases across
Mitigation, Adaptation &
Resilience, Fundamentals
(Research & Education)
5 - 10% of global
emissions reductions can
be driven by use of A.I.
(2.3-5.6 Gigatons CO2-
eq.)

11. Financing A.I. for Climate Change - H1’23 Climate Tech VC
Funding in H1 totaled $13.1B,
down 40% from H1’22; down
35% from H2’22.
Deal count up 8% YoY
Growth Funding plummeted
64% YoY
Broad verticals Transport,
Energy, Food down 50% YoY
Source: CTVC

12. Financing A.I. for Climate Change - Sectors garnering funding
Source: CTVC

13. Financing A.I. for Climate Change - Role of Government

14. Honour Masters
(Energize Capital)
● $1.2B under management.
● Priorities:
○ (1) Electric vehicles
○ (2) Decarbonization
○ (3) Adaptation & resilience,
○ (4) Industrial digitalization
● Companies with data will gain
huge advantage in AI era.
● Example Companies
○ Arora Solar
○ DroneDeploy
○ Jupiter Intelligence

15. Matthew Blain
Voyager Capital
● $200M under management,
2 year old venture firm
○ ”Decades of collective experience
in climate stabilization…”
○ “This is our lives’ work.”
○ Letter: Decarbonizing Data
● AI as tools for doing things better.
Physical Assets. Huge scope for AI
to optimize resources.
● Examples
○ Steel furnance optimization - 10%
emission savings, and potential
cost savings.
○ Design of solutions - new plant
and grain strains - AI, bio, climate -
food optimization and less waste.
○ Reassess engineering problems.

16. AI and Climate Change
at NSF
October 26, 2023
Sylvia Spengler
sspengle@NSF.gov

17. ACTIVITIES IN COMPUTING DIRECTORATE
NATIONAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) INSTITUTES,
$20M OVER 5 YEARS; AI2ES, ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCESU. OKLAHOMA, AMY
MCGOVERN
EXPANDING AI INNOVATION THROUGH CAPACITY
BUILDING AND PARTNERSHIPS (EXPANDAI), NSF 23-506,
DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN
COMPUTING (DESC)
NSF 23-532

18. SOURCES
-MAJOR RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE, CC*-
COMPUTE
-FUNDING FOR CONFERENCES OR
WORKSHOPS
-NSF RESEARCH TRAINEESHIPS,
CYBERTAINING
-GLOBAL CENTERS PROGRAM

19. Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): Advancing
Research in the Geosciences Using AI and ML
(NSF 23-046)
• The DCL (published Jan. 2023) promotes AI-enabled
geosciences research, and efforts to reduce barriers to use
of AI by geoscientists
• In FY23, the new Division of Research, Innovation,
Synergies, and Education (RISE) in NSF’s Geoscience
Directorate (GEO) provided $4.6M in co-funding for 22
projects through this DCL:
• Includes Earth, ocean, polar, atmospheric & geospace
sciences
• Most-common uses of AI in funded projects: feature
detection, parameter estimation, data-driven modeling
• Some projects push the cutting edge of AI/ML methods
(e.g., physics-informed machine learning for
https://doi.org/10.17226/26042

20. Erica Briscoe
DARPA
• Background in
Computational Social
Science
• Modeling and Causal
Relations Project
• AI for Systems Design
• Using AI to build,
augment, and maintain
better climate models
• Scientific workflow -
ingest paper, code, and
put it into a modeling
environment

21. Thank-you
Panelists

22. Jim Spohrer
ISSIP.org
Panel: Financing and Investing In
A Climate-Smart Sustainable Future
Moderator Co-organizer
Peetak Mitra
Excarta
James E. Mister
Bavaria in US
Honour Masters
Energize Capital
Matthew Blain
Voyager
Sylvia Spengler
NSF
Our five panelists…
Thursday October 26, 2012 – 4:45-5:30pm ET/1:45-2:30pm PT
Erica Briscoe
DARPA
Thank-you Panelists

23. Others interested in the community
Eric DeWeaver (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-deweaver-b6333711/)
Eva Zanzerkia (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-zanzerkia-1212045/)
Josh Rapperport (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuarapperport/)
Bob Ledoux (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-ledoux-963abb3a/)
Amy Francetic (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-francetic/)
Sophie Purdom (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiepurdom/)
Danya Hakeem (https://www.linkedin.com/in/danya-hakeem-41906126/)
Joshua Elliot (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshelliotdc/)
Sam Smith-Eppsteiner (https://www.linkedin.com/in/samlangse/)
Jessica Eastling (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaraeeastling/)
Rebecca Mitchem (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-mitchem-cfa-79231aa/)
Brian Rumao (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianrumao/
Anshu Agarwal (https://www.linkedin.com/in/anshuagarwal/)
Sunil Agarwal (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nagarajs/)
Lucas Joppa (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-joppa/)

24. References
•More by our panelists:
• James E. Mister – Recent Climate insights shared on LinkedIn
(Sept 2023) Speaker, “Carbon Procurement Value Chain” at Carbon Newbie Summit @ NYC Climate Week, hosted by IndieBio
(May 2023) Moderator, “Carbon Capture Utilization & Sequestration (CCUS) Standards & Regulatory Policy,” CCUS Forum, Doha, Qatar.
(April 2023) “Climate Risk & Returns: Shaping a Sustainable, Profitable Future.” Invited by CFA Institute as Climate Expert. Link.
(2021). “Growing at a Sustainable Clip: Tech Investors Pivot to Decarbonization & Climate Tech.” Bavaria Venture Capital Fund. Link
(2019). Featured by BMW Group in “Moving Minds” film as EV/Urban Mobility Expert for i-Series launch. CES 2019, Las Vegas, NV.
(2014) Example Urbanization Talk - YouTube: ”Mega events and the Developing World”
• Honour Masters - Recent EnergizeNEXT! post on LinkedIn
• Matthew Blain – Recent “Decarbonizing Air Travel” on LinkedIn
• Sylvia Spengler - Example Project: Arctic Snow and Ice Data & AI
•Example Convergence Talk – YouTube: “Data Science & Convergence”
•Other in community
•Event: AI for Climate @ Innovation Endeavors
•Hosted by Josh Rapperport & Sam Smith-Eppsteiner
•Thursday November 9, 2023
•Limited availability - Apply to join here: https://lu.ma/33iixbcw