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For too long it has been easy to ignore what takes place far out at sea and impossible to know who’s responsible for ‘mystery’ oil spills that wash ashore with distressing frequency.
But those days “are coming to an end” thanks to technology, according to SkyTruth, the non-profit conservation technology organisation: “Cerulean will shine a bright light on this hidden problem and give our partners powerful new tools to bring an end to chronic oil pollution in the ocean.”
The Cerulean platform uses satellite imagery and artificial intelligence (AI) to detect oil slicks and identify nearby vessels and offshore infrastructure that may be responsible. It is free and publicly available information, enabling journalists, campaign groups and regulators to “democratise access to critical environmental data and empower global efforts to protect our planet”.
The detection technology is already revealing the true scale of ‘chronic oiling’ – including in marine protected areas around the UK. On 1 January 2024, Naomi Tilley, oil and gas campaign lead at Oceana UK, started checking the platform: within 10 days a spill showed up in UK waters. “This is happening a lot but we are not hearing about it,” she says, having used data from the platform as part of a September 2024 report that details oil pollution in UK seas. If this was happening on land, companies “wouldn’t be getting away with it”, she adds.
Tilley isn’t the only campaigner that has turned to technology to pinpoint polluters where regulators and governments appear to be turning a blind eye – on land, at sea and in the air.
“AI, in combination with satellite imagery and open data, is revolutionising the way we monitor environmental degradation and support nature recovery,” says Lisa Burton, founder and CEO of Authentic Legal Ai, a company “on a mission” to help organisations navigate AI, data governance and compliance with integrity, intelligence and empathy. “These technologies provide a global, near real-time view of ecological change, revealing what was previously hidden,” she adds.
Others also feel that the game really has changed. Max Boucher, head of nature programmes at FAIRR, the $75trn collaborative investor network that raises awareness of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities, says technology is fundamentally transforming environmental accountability and shining a light on poor practices.
In our seas, there are those oil spills, as well as aquaculture expansion and an unmonitored and massive growth in shipping that are all piling pressure on an ocean already stressed by climate change. It’s estimated that one-fifth of seafood is also caught illegally or simply unreported (a crime worth up to $23.5bn). As Tony Long, CEO of Global Fishing Watch, noted in a TED talk: “You can’t monitor the whole ocean from the decks of ships but you can from space.”
Platforms such as Global Fishing Watch and Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance are using tech tools to scan vast amounts of fishing data for red flags. Their work helps uncover illegal fishing activity so that buyers, insurers and other stakeholders can make informed decisions with better ecological outcomes.
One of the tools harnesses data to enable insurers to quickly discover whether fishing vessels they are considering insuring are at risk of engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Cutting off access to insurance makes it more costly for IUU vessels to operate, so carrying “significant potential in reducing illegal fishing globally”, according to Long. “By making data transparent, the vessel viewer tool will allow insurers to cross-check reported information on a vessel’s identity and activity, pinpoint information gaps and ultimately help them make risk-based decisions about whether or not to insure a vessel,” he explains.
On land, NGO Mighty Earth has been chasing commodity corporates for years, highlighting their links to deforestation of precious forests. One of its latest reports linked Cargill-driven deforestation in Brazil to factory-farmed chicken in the UK. They used satellite imagery, land registry documentation, fire alerts, environmental permits and licences – alongside trade and publicly available commercial information – to assess the size, scale and nature of the deforestation, and to identify links to the companies involved.
In 2023, the NGO worked with AidEnvironment and they identified 68 cases of deforestation linked to the protein giant JBS’s beef supply chain, covering an area of more than 125,000 hectares. All the cases were analysed, confirmed through high-resolution satellite imagery, and validated before being published. This kind of information is “immensely valuable” to investors who want to understand exposure to ESG risks and make values-aligned decisions.
This is where ethical AI “shines”, says Burton, enabling “more transparent, data-backed investment decisions that reward genuine sustainability efforts rather than slick marketing”. This new tech is proving valuable to companies that want to present robust reports, back up environmental claims and stay on the right side of both campaigners and regulators.
Real-time data and traceability are opening up new ways for large companies to cut costs while tracking progress deep in their often-opaque supply chains, says Boucher at FAIRR. Thinking about agricultural sectors, for instance, satellite images interpreted by AI, combined with simple on-farm measurements, can show a direct correlation between regenerative agriculture projects and improvements in carbon, soil health and biodiversity, he adds.
In October, a new data platform from CTrees – REDD+AI – was the first to measure forest degradation from logging, fire and road construction across all tropical forests. Enabled by AI and advanced satellite data, the system detects change in every five-metre area of tropical forests worldwide. The data show that in 2017 to 2023, human activities like logging, fire and road construction degraded an average of more than 6.9 million hectares of tropical forest per year.
The results are not pretty but they will be pretty important in the fight against climate change. “This is the first data set of its kind to precisely reveal where and to what extent forest degradation (the second ‘D’ in REDD+) is occurring, enabling a more comprehensive strategy for emission reduction,” says Sassan Saatchi, CTrees’ CEO and senior research scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab/Caltech.
The data could also be especially useful for ensuring that forest carbon credits – which many companies are relying on to achieve sustainability targets and which have been at the centre of various scandals in recent years – are measurable and verifiable.
AI-powered algorithms can, for example, analyse large data sets to track deforestation rates, calculate carbon sequestration in forests, monitor industrial emission levels and give real-time updates, and ensure that carbon credits are accurately quantified and verified.
AI is also “excellent at predicting outcomes based on historical data”, explained Suraj Mane from EcoTechtonic – a start-up focused on environmental stewardship – in a recent blog. “When applied to carbon credit markets, AI can analyse past emission trends, weather patterns and industrial activity to forecast future carbon reduction opportunities,” he wrote, and “these predictive insights allow companies to plan their carbon reduction strategies more effectively and maximise their carbon credit returns.”
Accurate measurement and verification of changes in ecosystems, supporting restoration and ensuring that environmental claims (such as carbon offset credits) are genuinely backed by verifiable data represents “a powerful shift from reactive environmentalism to proactive accountability”, says Burton at Authentic Legal Ai. “It’s inspiring to see technology being deployed in the service of transparency and planetary health, rather than profit or surveillance,” she adds. “This is AI being used for good: not to manipulate, but to reveal truth.”
Corporates will also be leaning on it as the bar for due diligence rises through regulations such as the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
Debate over the pros and cons of AI, technology and data – including in the realms of ESG – will rage on. Any conversation about the power of data and AI comes with caveats – a warning not to get too carried away; to stay grounded. “Technology should support decision-making, not overwhelm it,” says Priscillia Moulin, co-founder and director of strategy at MosaiX, a “scalable nature intelligence platform that combines cutting-edge AI with community engagement”. Moulin feels the real value lies not just in the technology itself, but “in how it’s applied, validated and translated into credible action”.
Legal professionals are also increasingly likely to use AI and satellite-based platforms to bring hard evidence into public discourse and legal cases. It won’t be easy: linking the data to a specific company that is alleged to have caused harm and proving that actual harm is caused will be a challenge, explains Dominic Watkins, partner at law firm DWF.
Burton “absolutely expects” this use to expand – particularly as AI tools become more accessible and regulatory bodies start to accept this kind of data as evidence. Monitoring will also become easier – and harder for regulators to ignore. Sectors like agriculture, energy, mining and shipping – those with physical environmental impacts – will be among the most exposed.
However, any company making sustainability claims could be held accountable through data – from carbon credit purchasers to fashion retailers. The Advertising Standards Authority is also proactively monitoring green claims. Last year, it boasted how its AI-based active ad-monitoring system checked for greenwashing across 140,000 adverts made by air travel companies alone. As Long said in his TED talk, these are “interesting times”, as “seemingly intractable problems are starting to yield to the power of technology, AI and global interconnectedness”.
David Burrows is a freelance writer and researcher
