Governing AI for Sustainable Futures: Co-creating the Systems to Manage Risks and Unlock Opportunities

Much of today’s AI governance debate is organized around discrete risks — bias, misinformation, labor displacement. This framing misses a deeper question: how should societies govern a technology whose impacts evolve faster than the science and regulatory capacity meant to oversee it? AI governance is inseparable from sustainability — not climate alone, but the full transition spanning energy, industry, labor, finance, and the information environments democratic decision-making depends on. AI shapes whether that transition succeeds or fails, which makes governing AI well a sustainability question in its own right. Building on our report AI and Sustainability Transitions, this Climate Week event argues that AI governance and sustainability governance face the same institutional problem — and that the communities working on each urgently need to speak to one another. This event will feature a short introduction to the main findings of the report before opening the discussion to a panel of experts on AI, sustainability, and governance. From the moment doors open, you can weigh in — sharing your insights on where you stand, what you think, and putting the questions that are really on your mind into the room. What surfaces from your input, will feed straight into a panel discussion. The panel discussion will conclude with time for questions from the audience. This is an ongoing piece of work we're developing with Hitachi, and the discussion in the room will help shape where it goes next. We'd particularly like to hear from students and early-career researchers. Doors open at 9:00AM for breakfast. Panelists: William Babis, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Dr. Marco Tedesco, Laboratory on AI, Climate and Society (LAICS) Dr. Laura S. Scherling, Ed.D, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) Denise Hearn, Long Now Foundation