Sustainable AI Hackathons and Challenges
These events not only foster creativity and technical excellence, but also generate meaningful impact by promoting solutions aligned with sustainability goals. Both participants and enthusiasts are increasingly recognizing AI’s potential to help build a more resilient and environmentally friendly future.
Current Hackathons and Challenges
AI for Climate Action Award 2025
The UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee, in partnership with the Climate Technology Centre and Network and Korea International Cooperation Agency, officially launched the AI for Climate Action Award 2025. This global competition seeks open-source, AI-powered solutions that support climate adaptation and mitigation efforts in least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS). Submissions should demonstrate how AI is being used to address climate-related challenges in innovative, impactful, and context-specific ways.
AI for Climate Innovation Factory
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in collaboration with its partners, has announced the 2025 AI for Climate Action Innovation Factory. This initiative seeks to harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop innovative solutions that mitigate environmental impacts and support global adaptation efforts.
The final stage of the Innovation Factory will take place during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Brazil. Selected finalists will present their projects to a panel of judges composed of climate experts, technologists, and policymakers. Winners will receive recognition, prizes, and opportunities to collaborate with global organizations to bring their solutions to life.
Past Hackathons and Challenges
FurtureHacks 7
FutureHacks 7, an AI-focused hackathon hosted by AiGoLearning, is set to take place virtually from April 18-20, 2025. This year’s event revolves around the theme of Sustainability, inviting students to develop AI-powered solutions that address pressing environmental and social challenges. The hackathon aims to inspire creativity and innovation while fostering a commitment to sustainable development. Participants will work in teams to design and develop projects that align with the sustainability theme, showcasing their technical skills and innovative thinking. The event will culminate in a judging session where industry experts will evaluate the projects based on creativity, technical excellence, presentation quality, and the ability to respond to questions.
Water Scarcity
Hosted by Capgemini, the Water Scarcity Hackathon is an international event focused on technology, innovation, and ecology, has been launched since February 2025, and will last until May 2025. This hackathon challenges participants to develop solutions that reimagine water management, fostering a sustainable future through data science. Participants, either individually or in teams, will create predictive models to forecast water flow within a watershed and optimize water allocation among various economic stakeholders in an eco-friendly manner. The hackathon offers a unique platform to explore innovative predictive models, learn from experts in hydrology, data science, and climatology, and contribute to open-source sustainable solutions.
Frugal AI challenge
Hugging Face, Data for Good, and the French Ministry in charge of Ecological Transition launched in December 2024 a challenge to promote frugal AI models that address climate-related tasks. Participants tackled one or more of the following tasks:
- Textual detection of climate misinformation,
- Classification of images of forest fires,
- Sound detection of illegal deforestation.
Each task was ranked independently, and the winners were announced at the AI Action Summit 2025 in Paris, where heads of state, policymakers, and AI experts will gather to discuss the future of AI. The challenge aims to provide valuable insights and tips on energy-efficient AI inferences and promote innovation in sustainable AI solutions.
List a new initiative
The initiatives featured in this Hub are proposed by members and supporters of the Coalition. To be included, they must be open, collaborative, and internationally oriented. While the Coalition does not formally endorse these initiatives, members and supporters may choose to participate in or support them at their own discretion.
We invite you to submit any new initiative using the contact form provided.
