The High Potential of Data and IA to Support the Ecological Transition

Territories and public authorities are at the heart of the energy transition. They are drawing up climate plans and decarbonisation strategies, implementing measures to promote energy sufficiency and efficiency, to reduce greenhouse gases emissions and to develop renewable energies. These initiatives are framed by recent updates to European directives as part of the Green Deal and Repower EU.

Energy agencies support municipalities by providing them with the data they need to draw up and monitor their planning documents.

In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, we have developed TerriSTORY®. Thanks to a dynamic and interactive visual interface, TerriSTORY® enables local authorities to understand their territory, identify its potential and the priority action levers. On the basis of this analysis, the tool simulates prospective scenarios, by measuring their socio-economic and environmental impacts, in order to build a territorial path that meets the challenges ahead.

But to be effective, such a decision-making tool requires the integration of a very large volume of data. While open data is now widespread, we want to see this trend accelerate! Open source solutions should be highly promoted, and all data related to energy transition and climate change needs to be easily accessible. The private sector, when collaborating with the public one, should also open their data. The urgency of climate change demands that local authorities receive the best possible support from the agencies, their digital tools and their local expertise.

In the very near future, this data will be used to feed artificial intelligence (AI) models to facilitate decision making. For example, by grouping territories according to their diagnostic similarities, in order to identify correlations between the impacts of actions and trajectories. AI would then provide territorial stakeholders with a transition simulation tool, highlighting trends through retrospective analysis to help prioritise, in consultation with local authorities, the most appropriate actions to deploy on their territory.

The recent political agreement in December 2023 between the EU parliament and the Council on the AI legislation proposed by the commission in April 2021, recognises the role of AI in the fight against climate change. The development of artificial intelligence in support of the energy transition has only just begun, and energy agencies, whose role has been strengthened by the latest energy efficiency directive, will be a key contributor.

This editorial is extracted from our publication ‘Sustainable Regions in Action‘. Discover more here!