Climate change and biodiversity loss are two deeply interconnected global crises. As international efforts need to intensify to address these challenges, digital technologies – such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and digital twins – are increasingly seen as tools to support governance, research, and public engagement. But to what extent can these technologies contribute meaningfully to climate and biodiversity goals? And how might they act as either catalysts or barriers to transformative change?
Virtual Worlds is a research programme based at Linköping University that critically examines how key actors perceive and engage with emerging digital technologies. The programme investigates both the opportunities and risks these technologies present for climate and biodiversity governance, with a particular focus on inclusivity, legitimacy, and effectiveness.
New digital tools can provide increased opportunities to monitor, review and control environmental and climate challenges. Algorithms, machine learning, and visualisation techniques can be used to collect, process, and analyse growing amounts of data. In the context of international environmental and climate negotiations, digital technologies are being mobilised, as it is assumed that they can enable robust and transparent monitoring, scrutiny, and verification of how countries contribute to the achievement of agreed goals and commitments.
However, these tools have also been criticised for simplifying the understanding of complex interactions between climate and biodiversity. Critics warn that the options for action may be limited to technical and formalistic measures, thereby overlooking the diverse range of measures required for societies to transition to long-term sustainability. For this reason, many have advocated the inclusion of local and traditional knowledge in the international negotiation, monitoring, and review of climate and biodiversity action. A key question is how this can be harmonised with an increasing focus on digital technologies.
Studies within Virtual Worlds range from surveys and interviews at international climate and biodiversity negotiations to urban digital twins across Europe. It spans from interviews with indigenous communities in South America and the Pacific to interactive testing of digital tools with civil servants and students locally in Sweden.
The programme is conducted in collaboration with the University of Helsinki and includes two complementary projects:
- Seeing, Knowing and Acting in the Climate-Biodiversity Nexus (funded by Formas)
- Exploring the Transformative Power of Digital Technologies in Global Environmental Governance (funded by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation)
Together, these projects aim to foster a deeper understanding of how digital technologies can support inclusive and transformative pathways for climate and biodiversity action, while remaining critically aware of their limitations and risks.
