Artificial Intelligence, Climate Justice, and the Future of Environmental Law

Abstract

Background: Climate change disproportionately burdens communities that have contributed least to global greenhouse gas emissions, creating a fundamental asymmetry between historical responsibility and present impact. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and modern environmental law present new opportunities and complex challenges in the pursuit of climate justice.

Objective: This paper examines how AI technologies are transforming climate justice advocacy, environmental monitoring, and legal accountability, and identifies the legal reforms required for equitable AI-driven environmental governance at international and national levels.

Method: A systematic interdisciplinary review of literature published between 2010 and 2025 was conducted across climate science, artificial intelligence, environmental law, and political ecology databases, supplemented by analysis of IPCC reports, UNEP assessments, legal instruments, and landmark climate litigation cases from the European Union, United States, India, small island developing states, and the African Union.

Results: AI demonstrated significant potential to improve detection of environmental violations, strengthen climate attribution analysis, and identify disproportionate impacts on vulnerable populations. However, algorithmic bias, lack of transparency, unequal technological access, and data colonialism risked reinforcing existing inequalities in environmental governance and legal systems.

Conclusion: Realising AI’s potential for climate justice demands governance frameworks embedding equity by design, algorithmic transparency, data sovereignty, technology transfer, and democratic accountability as foundational principles, supported by coordinated legal reforms at international, regional, national, and corporate levels.