AI IN SUSTAINABILITY
Alternatively, IBM’ s contribution focuses on electricity access in developing countries.
Christina Shim, IBM’ s Chief Sustainability Officer, describes the company’ s forecasting model that predicts electricity access through 2030 across 102 countries in the Global South.
“ The model was co-developed by IBM and UNDP and built on IBM watsonx, IBM Cloud and an open-source machine learning library,” she says.
The system analyses everything from population density to satellite imagery to understand where electricity infrastructure is needed most.
Furthermore, the observatory includes 19 case studies spanning different sectors, but one stands out for its concrete business impact.
Hitachi Energy developed AI systems that predict electricity prices with accuracy – hitting 87 % to 93 % compared to the industry standard of 75 % – turning this into a commercial product called Nostradamus AI that lets users generate forecasts without needing data science expertise.
The observatory’ s potential The broader context here is that AI’ s energy appetite is forcing uncomfortable conversations about sustainability across the tech sector.
The IEA’ s observatory provides much-needed transparency, but it also highlights how the industry needs to balance innovation with environmental responsibility.
242 October 2025