The Climate Crisis and AI for Health

Full Title: The sustainability challenge of modern computational science

Abstract: From genetic studies and astrophysics simulations to AI, scientific computing has enabled amazing discoveries—and there's no doubt it will continue to do so. At the same time, the resource usage (energy, water) and environmental impacts of digital research infrastructures are becoming impossible to ignore given the urgency of the climate crisis.

So what can we all do about it? And as (health) scientists, should we even be thinking about this?

We'll break down how computing activities impact the environment, debate our collective responsibility to tackle it, and discuss the latest efforts of the Green Algorithms Initiative to empower researchers to understand and mitigate their environmental impacts. Through the lens of the GREENER principles for environmentally sustainable science, we'll explore the challenges the research community needs to overcome to create real change in this space.

Speaker: Dr Loïc Lannelongue

Dr Loïc Lannelongue is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Cambridge where he leads the Cambridge Sustainable Computing Lab, a research group studying the environmental impacts of computing. Passionate about environmental sustainability and responsible science, he is involved in both research and policy internationally. Among other things, he leads the Green Algorithms initiative and manages the Green DiSC certification framework for sustainable computing. He is a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow, a visiting scientist at the European Bioinformatic Institute (EMBL-EBI), and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Learning Objectives:

• Examine how AI’s computational demands contribute to the climate crisis.
• Explore pathways toward sustainable innovation in health research.
• Discuss how to balance AI progress with environmental responsibility, equity, and global health ethics.

Additional Details:

Join us on Wednesday, January 28, 2026 · 4:00 – 6:00 PM EST

In person at the University of Toronto, St. George Campus, Location TBC

or online via Zoom

Free and open to the public and will being 4:00pm sharp.

Questions?

Please email Terry Yuen, [email protected].

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Host or Publisher University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics