Google.org and CDP launch open-source AI tool to fast-track local climate investments

CDP and Google.org have begun a six-month collaboration to build an open-source, AI-driven decision tool intended to help city, state and regional authorities convert environmental disclosure into investable climate projects.

According to CDP, the non-profit that runs the world’s largest independent environmental disclosure system, subnational governments now face an unprecedented financing shortfall for resilience and decarbonisation, with identified needs reaching a record US$105 billion. CDP’s dataset covers disclosures from more than 1,000 cities, states and regions and, the organisation says, reveals rising exposure to flood, heat, water stress and biodiversity threats that local authorities must manage while competing for scarce capital.

The initiative will be executed through a Google.org Fellowship, which places teams of Google engineers, AI specialists and designers with non-profits. Over the fellowship term the team will combine Google’s cloud and machine-learning capabilities with CDP’s dataset to produce tailored, actionable analytics for subnational decision-makers, with the stated aim of shortening the path from reporting to project development and financing. The company said in a statement the tool will enable local leaders to map vulnerabilities, prioritise interventions and present clearer funding cases to investors and development lenders.

“CDP isn’t just the world’s only independent platform for corporate sustainability reporting – we also surface climate resilience projects across more than 1,000 cities, states, and regions worldwide. Our data shows a sharp surge in financing requirements for subnational governments soaring to a record US$105 billion. The message is clear: the urgency for increased financial flows has never been greater,” Sherry Madera, CEO of CDP, said.

Google.org described its Fellowship model as a way to mobilise technical talent quickly for high-impact social and environmental projects. “The Google.org Fellowship program is one of our most effective models for bringing Google’s technical expertise to help non-profit organizations accelerate their impact,” Maggie Johnson, Global Head at Google.org, said. “We believe technology can be a powerful force multiplier, and AI in particular has the power to fundamentally transform how we generate insights from data.”

For investors and development institutions, the effort responds to a recognised mismatch: climate action increasingly requires local infrastructure decisions and capital, yet data and analytics that translate local risks into bankable pipelines are limited. Cities alone account for a large share of global emissions and will need major infrastructure investment to meet mitigation and adaptation objectives; CDP has stressed that improving subnational project pipelines is essential to closing the broader climate finance gap.

The CDP disclosures also highlight opportunity as well as need. Industry reporting aggregated by CDP shows that the world’s largest companies now identify almost US$4.8 trillion in potential opportunities from climate-related products and services, up from about US$2.1 trillion in 2018, underscoring private-sector appetite for climate solutions that could intersect with local project pipelines.

The platform is being designed for public-sector practitioners, aiming to produce context-specific risk assessments, ranked investment options and communications-ready materials for prospective financiers. By delivering outputs as open-source, the partners say the tool will be available for adaptation and scrutiny across jurisdictions, which could accelerate uptake among cities and regions with limited in-house technical capacity.

While technology can streamline data synthesis, CDP and Google.org acknowledge that analytic tools alone do not create funding flows. Institutional coordination, standardised project preparation, concessional finance and policy certainty are also necessary to move investment from potential into projects on the ground. CDP has previously called for strengthened alignment between disclosure, reporting standards and finance mechanisms to make it easier for subnational actors to access capital.

If the fellowship’s work produces the intended decision-support product, it could become a component in a larger effort to connect local climate needs with global capital. For practitioners focused on industrial decarbonisation and resilient infrastructure, the platform promises a new way to shape investment-ready project pipelines from existing disclosure data, while highlighting the persistent gap between local requirements and available finance.