Climate AI Nordics

Climate AI Nordics

Nordic network for collaborations around tackling climate change using AI and machine learning.

Reflections on the first EurIPS and a successful AICC workshop

Last week marked a significant milestone for the European AI community with the inaugural EurIPS conference taking place in Copenhagen. The atmosphere was electric, bringing together experts in the field to discuss the future of machine learning in Europe.

We were proud to be present throughout the week, culminating in our own full-day workshop on Saturday. Here is a recap of our time in Copenhagen.

The booth: connecting the Nordic ai ecosystem

During the main conference days (Wednesday–Friday), we hosted a lively booth in collaboration with the Nordic AI Partnership and the Pioneer Centre for AI (P1).

It was fantastic to meet so many of you! Whether you stopped by for a technical discussion on climate adaptation, to learn about our network, or simply to enjoy a cup of our traditional Scandinavian glögg (and “glubbel”!), we appreciate the engagement. The booth did its job well to serve as a central hub for us and to connect researchers from Climate AI Nordics with others who are interested in our work.

EurIPA: A toast to the last session

The main conference concluded on Friday with closing remarks from Søren Hauberg, who announced a special collaboration with the Slowburn Brewing Co-op. As a fitting tribute to the final gathering of the main conference, they brewed a custom Session IPA appropriately named “EurIPA: The Last Session”. (Apparently there were many late-night text messages exchanged by the organizing committee, and there is a dangerous proximity of the “A” and “S” keys on a smartphone keyboard, so EurIPA was not that far-fetched).

It was the perfect way to toast to a successful first year: providing a refreshing end to the main conference before we geared up for our workshop the following morning.

AICC workshop: AI for climate and conservation

On Saturday, December 6th, we hosted the Workshop on AI for Climate and Conservation (AICC) at the University of Copenhagen South Campus. The turnout and the quality of the work presented were truly inspiring.

The goal of AICC was to bridge the gap between machine learning experts and domain scientists in climate and conservation. The program featured a fantastic lineup of speakers, including:

  • Philippe Ciais (LCSE)
  • Sagar Vaze (Mistral AI)
  • Mirela Beloiu Schwenke (ETH Zürich)
  • Natalie Ahlstrand (University of Copenhagen)
  • Drew Purves (Google DeepMind)
  • And many others from institutions like The World Bank, University of Copenhagen, and RISE.

Research highlights: seeing the forest and the trees

Given the critical role that global forests play—as carbon sinks, biodiversity havens, and climate regulators—it is perhaps no surprise that a significant portion of our program had a distinct shade of green. We were thrilled to see such a strong emphasis on forest management and vegetation analysis, reflecting the community’s drive to protect these vital ecosystems.

The workshop provided a deep dive into the “lungs of our planet,” with cutting-edge research covering:

  • Carbon & Biomass: New methods for biomass estimation and understanding carbon stocks.
  • Structure & Species: High-resolution mapping of canopy height and fine-grained tree species classification.
  • Protection: Scalable approaches for wildfire risk modeling and grazing detection.

However, we didn’t stay completely under the canopy. The workshop also featured fascinating work on weather forecasting, CO₂ atmospheric transport, and urban heat resilience, proving that our community’s impact extends well beyond the woods.

We want to extend a huge thank you to all the authors who presented their posters. The discussions around our 32 poster boards were lively and insightful.

A community effort

This week wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our partners and collaborators. A special thank you to the Danish Data Science Academy (DDSA) and the Pioneer Centre for AI for supporting the AICC workshop.

From the muddy walks through the city parks to the networking social event and the packed auditorium on Saturday, EurIPS 2025 was a memorable event. We look forward to seeing how the collaborations formed this week will evolve into impactful climate solutions.

Did you miss the workshop? You can check out the list of accepted papers and speakers on our AICC website. Recordings will end up on our youtube channel shortly.

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Reflections on the first EurIPS and a successful AICC workshop

Published:

Climate AI Nordics joined the inaugural EurIPS conference in Copenhagen last week, connecting with the community at our booth shared with the Nordic AI Partnership and Pioneer Centre for AI. On Saturday, we successfully hosted the full-day AICC workshop, featuring an inspiring lineup of speakers and over 30 posters bridging machine learning and climate science. While the research highlights covered diverse topics like weather forecasting, a significant portion of the program focused on analyzing forests as vital carbon sinks and biodiversity havens. We are grateful to our partners and all amazing researchers from around Europe and the rest of the world for supporting this memorable week of collaboration, glögg, and impactful science.

Featured member, December 2025: Laura Ruotsalainen

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Laura Ruotsalainen is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki and leads the Spatiotemporal Data Analysis research group. Her work focuses on developing machine learning methods for spatiotemporal data, particularly in reinforcement learning, representation learning, and uncertainty-aware models, motivated by challenges in climate, sustainability, and urban resilience. She also serves as Vice-Chair of the ELLIS Institute Finland and is a steering group member of the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI)