Science & Technology

Charlotte Degot: A more accurate way to calculate emissions | TED

Greenhouse gases are colorless, scentless and invisible, making them exceptionally hard to measure. Fortunately, some tools and techniques can help — one of the most powerful being artificial intelligence, says green technologist Charlotte Degot. By processing massive amounts of data on carbon emissions, she explains how AI makes it possible for corporations to set meaningful…

Published

on

Greenhouse gases are colorless, scentless and invisible, making them exceptionally hard to measure. Fortunately, some tools and techniques can help — one of the most powerful being artificial intelligence, says green technologist Charlotte Degot. By processing massive amounts of data on carbon emissions, she explains how AI makes it possible for corporations to set meaningful climate targets, more accurately track their progress and, most importantly, reduce pollution over time.

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

Become a TED Member:
Follow TED on Twitter:
Like TED on Facebook:
Subscribe to our channel:

TED’s videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at

55 Comments

  1. plant Family

    January 6, 2022 at 4:25 pm

    but they are putting sensors on everything it’s called smart dust

  2. Roland Tamaccio

    January 6, 2022 at 4:28 pm

    Oh, I thought you had a sensor to put in stacks and exhaust systems .

  3. Nick The Piker

    January 6, 2022 at 4:30 pm

    Cow farts all the cow farts is the problem,

    • Paulo Arantes

      January 6, 2022 at 4:37 pm

      Cows actually burp methane, not fart 🙂

  4. Self-Law

    January 6, 2022 at 4:32 pm

    ITS A CLIMATE CON. CARBON FOOTPRINT TAXES ETC.

    • Eli Nope

      January 6, 2022 at 4:42 pm

      Climate change is real, but the proposed solutions are power grabs. A real problem is being used to justify creating even more problems while they lie about addressing the real problem.

      If you are near a very wet area that floods or is a flood risk, I recommend that you grow organic rice.

    • Self-Law

      January 6, 2022 at 4:44 pm

      @Eli Nope The climate have always changed. This time its been exploited.

    • Eli Nope

      January 6, 2022 at 4:50 pm

      @Self-Law Yes and the infrastructure from decades ago was built for weather patterns of decades ago. We need to come up with some type of mobile infrastructure. That would be actually addressing the issue.

      Also it wasn’t man made climate change that is altering climate on the other planets in the solar system.

  5. Paulo Arantes

    January 6, 2022 at 4:39 pm

    AI needs data, and if the data is not available or not measured correctly it can’t solve anything. It’s common to say “garbage in, garbage out” for AI models trying to predict or optimize these problems.

  6. Alec Neuschaefer

    January 6, 2022 at 4:40 pm

    Getting nocturnal emissions after this.

  7. Nylak Otter

    January 6, 2022 at 4:47 pm

    Currently distracted by the fact that the speaker strongly resembles my dog during hunting season.

  8. IKEMEN Osaka-ben!【大阪弁】

    January 6, 2022 at 4:51 pm

    She should go to the UN

  9. sjoerd woudaa

    January 6, 2022 at 4:54 pm

    Try the dutch way

  10. Kunal Sanu

    January 6, 2022 at 4:58 pm

    And I misread emissions as emotions 😂

    • Lany King ThaMM6

      January 6, 2022 at 5:14 pm

      After reading this, I watched it as emotions and it still made sense 😂

  11. Alsadek Alkhayer

    January 6, 2022 at 4:58 pm

    I couldn’t focus with that cute accent

  12. M H

    January 6, 2022 at 5:01 pm

    She’s right – without any way to guage or measure what we’re doing, the politicians and corporate elite can continue to scam the people of their money and line their own pockets. That’s why you’ll never see it.
    Edit: OR you WILL see it, and it will be used by the politicians and corporate elite to continue to scam people out of their money.

  13. Flik

    January 6, 2022 at 5:05 pm

    Im surprised that ‘Production Country’ was in the example. Wouldn’t this also be something that is too global? If this is used to discern the best production methods, a sustainable plant in a country with a poor score, will never be chosen “because the ai says it’s bad”.

    Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely agree but factors that do not directly affect the production emissions should always be clicked down.

    • Jose Gorbea

      January 6, 2022 at 9:02 pm

      Good point, I’m pretty sure though “country of origin” it means the distance it has to travel in order to make it to the destination (and then the added cost of the mode of transport – eg. by boat, car, train, etc.). Def. makes more sense to get local rather than cement from the other side of the planet. Cheers

    • Flik

      January 7, 2022 at 9:48 am

      @Jose Gorbea Was thinking about this later as well, that is a valid point – but for a country such as India, it could be quite a big difference in distance from one point to another. Anyway, still a big improvement over flat numbers 🙂

  14. Randall Wilson

    January 6, 2022 at 5:29 pm

    Naw. We don’t need to be begging them to please, please, please do better. We need to take collective control of the machines they bought with our stolen labor.

    Ain’t no putting lipstick on the pig known as capitalism.

  15. Randall Wilson

    January 6, 2022 at 5:37 pm

    Sorry, I don’t know who you think you’re addressing here because the most vile green house gas emitters don’t care about your soft heart and reasoned requests. They’re going to keep destroying life, manipulating data to suit their end goal of production for profit and stealing from working people.

    They might paint themselves up in woke face, but they will continue to do exactly as they always have done.

    Naw. We need to take control of the machines they bought with our stolen labor and direct production for the benefit of every human on the planet. End of story end of environmentally devastating overproduction in the name of profit and end of longterm eco-degradation.

  16. Mohamed Khaled

    January 6, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    You sound jurman right ?

  17. Vcat417 - Channel " All is intertwined "

    January 6, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    Yep. It’s live and learn kinda thing

  18. Bernhard Schmalhofer

    January 6, 2022 at 6:26 pm

    Maybe i’m to much of a capitalist, but I don’t get why we should rely on voluntary action plans of companies. Just put a higher price on emissions. Companies will then automatically optimize for costs. It does not really matter whether the optimisation process is then called AI or not.

  19. Bernhard Schmalhofer

    January 6, 2022 at 6:26 pm

    Maybe i’m too much of a capitalist, but I don’t get why we should rely on voluntary action plans of companies. Just put a higher price on emissions. Companies will then automatically optimize for costs. It does not really matter whether the optimisation process is then called AI or not.

    • Jaime

      January 10, 2022 at 9:00 pm

      Correct from a Price Theory perspective, but the speakers point is we cannot accurately measure emissions. Assume that is a fact, then how could government collect for emissions? That is why governments tax fuel instead of emissions. Easy to measure, easy to tax.

    • Bernhard Schmalhofer

      January 11, 2022 at 8:00 am

      @Jaime Correct, and I think that in most settings this is good enough, as there is a direct correlation between fuel consumption and emissions. If e.g. emissions are already priced into transport, than there is less of a need to find out the efficiency of transport.
      But I don’t think that pricing is everything, I also like direct mandates. I’m more dubious of shifting the responsibility to consumer choice.

  20. Peter

    January 6, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    Let me guess.. she’s from France.

    • Solitary Reaper

      January 6, 2022 at 7:04 pm

      racist

  21. Solitary Reaper

    January 6, 2022 at 7:07 pm

    why not learn to speak the language you want to speak – beyond me

  22. Aryan Parekh

    January 6, 2022 at 8:49 pm

    Wht would be a price of Ai… I dont think its very cheap and easy to get.

  23. أرشيف زيتا

    January 6, 2022 at 8:56 pm

    ممتاز

  24. مكتبة المحامي

    January 6, 2022 at 8:56 pm

    ممتاز

  25. Amanda Bruce

    January 6, 2022 at 10:19 pm

    *The market will be very favourable now to invest due to the dip of Bitcoin which is $43k, The rich won’t disclose it so don’t be fooled, it’s right time to start up an invesment this New year and smile later*

  26. siu Djan

    January 7, 2022 at 12:03 am

    Like👍🔔👏

  27. wiggledy toes

    January 7, 2022 at 12:09 am

    Truly sad these turds will be handing to the next generation. Not a clue. Keep drinking the kool aid.

  28. Richard Davine

    January 7, 2022 at 2:31 am

    Clinker can be made from the waste products of iron smelting too.

  29. Rezin 8

    January 7, 2022 at 4:59 am

    Using Ai properly ♻️😎♻️ awesome start!

  30. Siddharth Sharma

    January 7, 2022 at 5:25 am

    her face is more masculine than mine

  31. Last Born

    January 7, 2022 at 5:43 am

    Is this a indictment of Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) …?.

  32. Mike B

    January 7, 2022 at 10:39 am

    Why is this woman scamming climate change on TED?

  33. Arturo Tabera

    January 7, 2022 at 10:42 am

    I.m.o. the best strategy still is to stop breathing. Really!

  34. Brea Ragu

    January 7, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    Jesus loves you he died on the cross for your sins. All you have to do is believe in him and you will be saved. ❤ ✝️

  35. pouytrfg Zks

    January 7, 2022 at 2:45 pm

    Ideas die and the world will The end and there is only one solution, which is to end the world and start Again. I have special ideas that will change the world’s thinking i want some one to work with here we’re really going to change the world

  36. David Hunt

    January 7, 2022 at 8:14 pm

    Carbon is not the problem.
    You are the carbon leftist want to reduce. Fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy metals are the real threat. Don’t let these hucksters trick you into giving up your freedom.

  37. Mohamed Magdy

    January 8, 2022 at 12:19 am

    French accent is quite cute 😅😂

  38. Razib Hossain

    January 8, 2022 at 11:03 am

    Great!

  39. Scenic Hwys

    January 8, 2022 at 4:54 pm

    Earth is a very resilient planet. Over 4.5 billion years it has survived enormous catastrophes. However man has come to the conclusion that humans are destroying the planet. That is a false statement. The people promoting this climate change are only in it for one reason, money. There is a more serious problem in the early stages of war with our planet. This war is called, the Earth’s magnetic poles are in the early stages of flipping. This is a natural event. Our Earth will survive this war but unfortunately man may be wipe off the planet. ……………………. The north pole does move but it always stays within a set boundary . In the past 15 years it has made a significant move out of that boundary and that is the cause of our current climate change. If you don’t believe this then read about the Earth’s magnetic poles flipping.

  40. scott denoncour

    January 10, 2022 at 3:25 pm

    your all wasting your time and money when the ice shelf calves a big enough hunk its all over for us all rich or poor and all the data in the world is not going to help , so just go away shut up and do something constructive with your life

  41. Jaime

    January 10, 2022 at 9:09 pm

    Artificial Intelligence works off an objective function with constraints. If an AI’s objective is to minimize emissions, then the most efficient way to do that is to exterminate humanity. Corporations maximize profit, so their AI would be to minimize emissions while exceeding a profit goal. The example at 6 minutes is not AI. It is just good mathematics … a higher fidelity emissions estimate. Ms Degot’s words are not AI, they are Math Programming. She is searching for an optimal solution. Balancing an objective function given certain constraints. Some AI applications use a math programming, but normally are used as heuristics when factors and parameters are grossly unknown. That is not the case there. Businesses are just trying to comply, not to improve because they know the climate is changing with or without human involvement.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending

Exit mobile version