Code Green

• 08: Locating Sust(AI)nability in the Smart City

  Amidst rapid urbanisation, Asia’s urban centres are increasingly turning to smart solutions as they grapple with worsening air pollution, rising emissions, and erratic weather patterns. What role can data and AI play in shaping more sustainable urban futures? In this episode, ChengHe Guan and Raj Cherubal discuss the future of digital urban transformation, with a focus on smart and sustainable city initiatives in China and India. ChengHe explores how urban sensing techniques and fine-grained data analysis can shed light on pathways to more responsible and inclusive cityscapes. Raj draws on his experience as former CEO of India’s flagship Smart City project in Chennai, revealing the ground-level complexities at the intersection of city systems and climate resilience, as well as the potentials of AI and digital tools for institutional capacity and urban planning. Together, they emphasise that while data and AI are potentially valuable tools, they must be guided by thoughtful policy and inclusive design. They call for the consideration of societal behaviour in planning, stronger global partnerships and cross-disciplinary knowledge sharing to avoid redundant efforts and co-create cities that are equitable, safe, and accessible for all.You can read the transcript for this episode ⁠here.SpeakersChengHe GuanDirector of the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urban Design and Urban Science, Assistant Professor of Urban Science and Policy, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Assistant Professor, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, NYU ChengHe Guan is an Assistant Professor of Urban Science and Policy at NYU Shanghai, Global Network Assistant Professor, and PhD Advisor at NYU Wagner and is the founding co-director of the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Urban Design and Urban Science. He is affiliated with the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, the School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences at East China Normal University, and NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Additionally, he serves as a senior research consultant to the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society at the University of Oxford.Raj CherubalRaj was CEO of Chennai Smart City Ltd. for six years, the flagship initiative of the Government of India to improve city infrastructure and services. Earlier, he was Director-Projects at Chennai City Connect, a platform for industry associations and civic organisations. He has a background in computational physics, visualisation, telecom and finance. He has worked on projects in sustainable transportation, urban planning and integrated, multi-modal public transportation, solid waste management, urban water body restoration, sustainable financing of urban infrastructure, and redevelopment of business districts and regional planning. He has worked to promote decentralisation and good urban governance, as well as economic freedom for entrepreneurs in the informal sector. He holds a M.S. in Physics from the University of Louisville and a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Show NotesIndia Smart Cities GuidelinesUrban Metabolism TheoryFumihiko MakiThe Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and EcologyDelineating urban park catchment areas using mobile phone data: A case study of TokyoCommand and Control CentreAI + Climate Futures in AsiaSP Services and the Energy Market Authority Electricity Saving PilotQuantum UrbanismUrban Climate Community Project100RC Resilience, C40 and ITDPPlastic OdysseyCheck out the Code Green glossary for more terms.This podcast series is accompanied by a monthly newsletter - sign up for updates ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. For more on the project, visit ⁠⁠codegreen.asiaCredits Audio Editing: Creator Studio Goa by Winfluence MediaProduction Support: Shivranjana Rathore and Meredith StingerCover Design: Nayantara SurendranathAttributionsIntro and Outro: ⁠⁠Retro Sounds⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Alban_Gogh⁠⁠Transitions - ⁠⁠Meditative Background Music⁠⁠, ⁠⁠white_records⁠

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• 07: Routing Futures for AI in Urban Mobility

  As population growth, motorisation, and climate change strain urban mobility in the Asian region, the design and delivery of transport services are becoming increasingly complex. Experts Huê-Tâm Jamme and Kris Villanueva-Libunao explore why cities need equitable, people-centred planning that accounts for existing mobility patterns and what barriers exist to implementing AI for mobility. Hue-Tam emphasises the role of political will in shaping new transport modes that should not only support networks of economic activity but also enhance urban vibrancy and local culture. Kris juxtaposes AI’s potential to improve traffic management, sustainability, and safety with the need for strong data governance and capacity building for equitable AI implementation in the region. Together, they advocate for stakeholders to view mobility infrastructure as systems that impact people’s economic, social and cultural lives.You can read the transcript for this episode ⁠here.SpeakersKris Villanueva-LibunaoCEO, SmartCT Kris R. Villanueva-Libunao is a leader in digital governance, AI policy, and smart cities including smart mobility. As Executive Director of SMARTCT-Philippines, she leads initiatives integrating AI and data-driven solutions into urban planning, leading projects such as the Smart LGU Assessment and Growth Map to optimise mobility and infrastructure in local governments. Her expertise in AI governance is underscored by her role as AI Country Lead Researcher for the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where she advanced policies to enhance gender-sensitive AI adoption in Southeast Asia. Kris has authored publications, including “Artificial Intelligence Policies to Enhance Urban Mobility in Southeast Asia”, and co-developed the Philippine National Transportation Strategy. Huê-Tâm JammeAssistant Professor, Arizona State University Huê-Tâm explores the effects of new technologies on space and society, especially on how people move, work, shop, and socialize in cities, asking how we can shape urban spaces that are more livable, accessible, and equitable? Jamme has led projects on car-free living in the US, automated food vending in France, and the platform economy in Southeast Asia. Her research interests span mobility, retail, transit-oriented development (TOD), and public space. Through her theory of "productive frictions", she explains how motorbike mobility in Vietnam produces high opportunities for commercial and social interactions on city streets; and why the rapid adoption of cars and mass transit will likely reduce the level of urban productive frictions.. Show NotesTomtom Traffic Index 2019Global status report on road safety 2023JICA Philippines Annual Report 2023, JICA Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure for Metro Manila 2014Mobility over Air Quality Index (MAQI)Doing Urban Development Fieldwork: Motorbike Ethnography in Hanoi (2018)Informal transport in the PhilippinesClean Energy and Decarbonization in Southeast AsiaSingapore's 'AI Traffic System' set to tackle Phuket's congestion, A Smarter Way to Manage Mass Transit in a Smart CityJICA Survey Transit Oriented Development in Vietnam (2016)The production of new mobilities: a theoretical framework to the politics of mobility transitions Seoul Open DataDigital Adoption in the PhilippinesNational Strategic Transportation StrategySmart City Assessment and Roadmap Development ProjectCheck out the Code Green glossary for more terms.This podcast series is accompanied by a monthly newsletter - sign up for updates ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.For more about this project, visit our website ⁠⁠codegreen.asiaCreditsAudio Editing: Creator Studio Goa by Winfluence MediaProduction Support: Shivranjana Rathore and Meredith StingerCover Design: Nayantara SurendranathAttributionsIntro and Outro: ⁠⁠Retro Sounds⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Alban_Gogh⁠⁠Transitions - ⁠⁠Meditative Background Music⁠⁠, ⁠⁠white_records⁠

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• 06: Material AI & the Mineral Supply Chain

  AI is often framed as the future of progress, but what fuels this revolution? Behind every data centre, semiconductor, and AI model lies a hidden world of resource extraction, geopolitical power struggles, and environmental destruction. In this episode, we dig into the raw materials powering AI—from rare earth mining to data centres sucking up water in drought-prone regions. Experts Tom Özden-Schilling and Tamara Kneese reveal the true cost of AI’s rapid expansion—its human and ecological toll—and why the conversation on sustainability must move beyond carbon footprints to the messy realities of global supply chains.You can read the transcript for this episode ⁠here.SpeakersDr. Tom Özden-SchillingTom Özden-Schilling is Presidential Young Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. His first book, The Ends of Research: Indigenous and Settler Science after the War in the Woods, is an ethnography of environmental deregulation in western Canada, and its effects on Indigenous and settler researchers’ struggles to maintain long-term forestry experiments and sovereignty projects. Tom’s current project examines the social costs of green energy transitions through the emergence of new critical minerals research and development initiatives in the United States, Malaysia, and Australia. Before joining NUS, Tom was Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University.Dr. Tamara KneeseDr. Tamara Kneese directs Data & Society Research Institute's Climate, Technology, and Justice programme. Previously, she led Data & Society's Algorithmic Impact Methods Lab (AIMLab). Before joining D&S, she was lead researcher at Green Software Foundation, director of developer engagement on the Green Software team at Intel, and assistant professor of Media Studies and director of Gender and Sexualities Studies at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond (Yale University Press, 2023). Tamara holds a PhD in Media, Culture and Communication from NYU.Check out the Code Green glossary for more terms.This podcast series is accompanied by a monthly newsletter - sign up for updates ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. For more about this project, visit our website ⁠⁠codegreen.asiaShow NotesMountain Pass Rare Earth MineAustralia's first rare earths processing plant opens in KalgoorlieNvidia: what’s so good about the tech firm’s new AI superchip? Value creation in the metaverse Crypto's Climate Impact: 8 Claims, Fact-CheckedIEA Electricity 2024 Report Ethereum's energy usage will soon decrease by ~99.95%  Granbury Residents Sue Local Bitcoin Mine Over Health-Threatening Noise Pollution Boom and Bust: The Fight over Bitcoin Mining in New York StateMeasuring AI’s Environmental Impacts Requires Empirical Research and Standards A New Front in the Water Wars: Your Internet Use Air Pollution and the Public Health Costs of AI The women who made America’s microchips and the children who paid for it Controversial rare earths plant in fight for survival in MalaysiaBiden is scrambling for minerals. This U.S. cobalt mine just closed The Pilbara Crisis: Resource Frontiers in Western Australia The Data Annotation Industry in the Global SouthAI Governance in Malaysia Report | Khazanah Research Institute EU Artificial Intelligence ActData Centre Alley  CreditsAudio Editing: Creator Studio Goa by Winfluence MediaProduction Support: Shivranjana Rathore,  Meredith StingerCover Design: Nayantara SurendranathAttributionsIntro and Outro: ⁠⁠Retro Sounds⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Alban_Gogh⁠⁠Transitions - ⁠⁠Meditative Background Music⁠⁠, ⁠⁠white_records⁠

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• 05: AI & Energy Transitions in Asia

  For many countries in Asia, pathways to clean energy transitions are complex with continued reliance on coal and legacy infrastructure, a rapidly urbanising economy, and a booming data centre industry. How can we ensure that AI adoption is both safe and sustainable while also fostering equitable energy transitions?  In this episode, we hear from John Cotton & Priya Donti on the enthusiasm of governments in Asia in using AI to improve the efficiency of energy systems & manage energy demand & supply. We discuss AI’s potential to help integrate renewable energy sources into the grid, challenges in the area, environmental impacts & ways to manage them, and the need to invest in capacity building & skill development. You can read the transcript for this episode ⁠here. Speakers John Cotton  John Cotton is Senior Program Manager for the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership, UNOPS with a demonstrated history of project development in energy transition, renewables, IT and mining industries. John is educated in the UK at Manchester and Sussex Universities with a B.Sc (Hons) in Mathematics, Software Engineering, and an M.Sc in Energy Policy, respectively. John has been based in Southeast Asia for 20 years and has overseen projects ranging from EPC contracts for hydropower and solar projects, through policy analysis and recommendations for the multi-disciplinary energy transition challenges faced across the region. Before ETP, he was Climate Change Policy Officer at the British Embassy, Vientiane of Lao PDR, and draws on extensive experience from both the public and private sectors. Priya Donti Priya Donti is an Assistant Professor at MIT EECS and LIDS, whose research focuses on machine learning for forecasting, optimisation, and control in high-renewables power grids. Specifically, her work explores methods to incorporate the physics and hard constraints associated with electric power systems into deep learning workflows.  Priya is also the co-founder and Chair of Climate Change AI, a global non-profit initiative to catalyse impactful work at the intersection of climate change and machine learning. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. Show Notes COP26: What Asia pledged, from China to Vietnam and Philippines PT PLN  Indonesia’s State Utility Company A comprehensive overview on demand-side energy management towards smart grids: challenges, solutions, and future direction Upgrading and Modernising the Java-Madura-Bali Electricity Control Centre Renewable Integration - Energy System - IEA Development of Vietnam Smart Grid Roadmap for period up to year 2030, with a vision to 2050 Review on Machine Learning for Sustainable Energy Systems Aligning artificial intelligence with climate change mitigation (overview of the multi-faceted relationship between AI and climate) Climate Change and AI: Recommendations for Government Action (Global Partnership on AI report) French grid operator RTE Learning to Run a Power Network challenge SCADA/EMS Electricity 2024 – Analysis - IEA What Are Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)? Global Brands Say Future Orders at Risk Given Cambodia’s Increasing Coal Power UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) Microsoft deal propels Three Mile Island restart Tiny machine learning OpenSynth - LF Energy Check out the Code Green glossary for more terms. This podcast series is accompanied by a monthly newsletter - sign up for updates ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. For more about this project, visit our website ⁠⁠codegreen.asia Credits Audio Editing: Creator Studio Goa by Winfluence Media Production Support: Shivranjana Rathore,  Tammanna Aurora,  Dona Mathew,  Meredith Stinger Cover Design: Nayantara Surendranath Attributions Intro and Outro: ⁠⁠Retro Sounds⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Alban_Gogh⁠⁠ Transitions - ⁠⁠Meditative Background Music⁠⁠, ⁠⁠white_records⁠

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• 04: AI & Biodiversity Conservation in Asia

  In this episode, Eleanor Slade & VV Robin discuss how technologies like AI have the potential to support conservation practices, yet challenges (data availability & financing) remain to realise some of these aspirations.On one hand, technology has facilitated public interest in nature. Using digital tools & apps, people can access info about diverse species & improve their understanding of their environments. On the other, the potential benefits of technology must not distract resources away from basic foundational research. AI can help in monitoring & processing large amounts of data, but investments are needed to ensure the next generation's familiarity with basic sciences & knowledge.With years of data collection, we're also at the point where we need to approach biodiversity data more thoughtfully-how much data do we really need? Would smaller datasets captured over shorter durations lead to the same kind of results? How do we minimise resource wastage? Eleanor & Robin discuss some of these key issues, situated in their unique practice areas in Singapore, Malaysia & India.You can read the transcript for this episode ⁠here.SpeakersEleanor Slade Eleanor is an Associate Professor at the Tropical Ecology & Entomology Lab at the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyan Technological University. Her research focuses on the challenges & opportunities associated with conservation, management, & restoration of tropical forests & human-modified landscapes. She's worked in the rainforests & oil palm plantations of Singapore, Malaysia, Sumatra, Philippines, Belize, & Brazil, & the woodlands & agricultural systems of Finland & the UK.She's currently also working on the AMBER project that's testing the use of automated camera & audio systems, combined with AI to deliver more standardised monitoring of insects, bats & birds; aiming to deploy a network of 40 biodiversity monitoring units over the next 2 years.Social Media: @eleslade.bsky.social / @teelab.bsky.socialVV Robin Robin is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Education, & Research  (IISER) Tirupati. His work focuses on patterns & processes in ecology, behavioural ecology, biogeography & evolutionary ecology. He's interested in conservation initiatives involving multiple stakeholders & in collaborative research initiatives. He & his team use tools like bioacoustics, phylogenetics & population genetics, along with Remote Sensing & GIS to understand the relationship of birds with their habitats. Five years ago, he initiated a project to understand why birds found in some Western Ghats habitats didn't appear in others. It took him two years to analyse avian sound recordings collected over a year. He is of the opinion that AI could've helped him analyse this data in a year. His geography of work is the Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats & peninsular areas of India.Show NotesWarning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbersCentre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UKThe Alan Turing InstituteAMBER: Unveiling AMBER: A Glimpse into Biodiversity Monitoring in Singapore using AI, Spotlight on moths in S’pore to assess impact of climate change, habitat loss on biodiversity, Scientists turn to AI and moths to assess health of ecosystemsSholicolaJerdon's CourserBirdNetMerlineBirdIPBES: Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services ReportSoutheast Asian Rainforest Research Project (SEARP)Riparian Buffer ZonesAlternative Futures: AI & Climate in the Indian contextiNaturalistGlobal Biodiversity Information FacilityThis podcast series is accompanied by a monthly newsletter - sign up for updates ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠. For more, visit our website⁠ ⁠⁠codegreen.asia⁠CreditsAudio Editing: Creator Studio GoaProduction Support: Shivranjana Rathore & Meredith StingerCover Design: Nayantara SurendranathAttributionsIntro & Outro: ⁠⁠Retro Sounds⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Alban_Gogh⁠⁠Transitions: ⁠⁠Meditative Background Music⁠⁠, ⁠⁠white_records⁠

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