The winner of 2021's Children’s Climate Prize is Reshma Kosaraju, a fifteen-year-old from the US, who impressed with her project using AI technology: AI against forest fires

The winner of 2021's Children’s Climate Prize is Reshma Kosaraju, a fifteen-year-old from Saratoga, USA. Reshma's project, AI against forest fires, uses AI technology to predict forest fires. Her courageous, innovative and solution-oriented approach to forest fires, a highly topical and growing global issue, made Reshma's project stand out.

The jury’s motivation:

Climate change and forest fires mutually reinforce each other and wildfires, today, are in many locations larger, more intense and longer lasting. Forest fires have increasingly become a global and topical issue. Reshma represents the best of youth entrepreneurship: brave, innovative and solution-oriented. Her model uses AI and technology in an innovative and savvy way in order to accurately predict the risk of forest fires while also accounting for the independent variables of climate, weather and human behavior. A clear and scalable business concept, with a global approach to accessibility. This is an example of an extraordinary and creative solution based on a systemized approach.

Fires are a natural part of a forest's ecosystem, but the underlying conditions have changed. It seems as though climate change and forest fires are increasingly mutually catalytic, resulting in more intense and longer lasting forest fires. Forest fires have become a global problem, causing over 339,000 premature deaths worldwide – and threatening biodiversity by destroying animals and nature. The project, AI against forest fires, created by fifteen-year-old Reshma Kosaraju, from Saratoga, USA, can predict forest fires with almost 90% accuracy. Reshma uses open data, such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, soil moisture and human behavior to, with the help of AI, calculate where and when the probability of a forest fire occurring is greatest. Reshma hopes the Children’s Climate Prize will draw attention to her project, so that more people can become aware of the AI model's existence.

"I’m so happy and my hope is that this win will lead to more people hearing about AI against forest fires, and that it will become a universally accessible tool for predicting forest fires. I especially wish for people living in areas more prone to forest fires to be aware and make use of this project, as it could greatly improve preparedness," says fifteen-year-old Reshma Kosaraju, winner of the 2021 Children’s Climate Prize.

AI against forest fires is, at present, a functioning prototype on a computer. However, the goal moving forward is to make the model publicly available in the form of an app, while heavily marketing its use within fire departments to proactively mitigate forest fires. Reshma's next step will be to further improve the user interface so that the AI model can be scaled-up to the global platform.

"I’m incredibly impressed by Reshma’s inventiveness and drive. Reshma is the obvious winner of the 2021 Children’s Climate Prize, a year when forest fires have once again affected a large part of the world. The world needs Reshma’s innovation and we need to support the courageous youth who are working for a better tomorrow. We hope that the win will help boost Reshma’s hopes for the project – both financially and through the increased awareness that comes with the prize," says Johannes Boson, CEO of Telge Energi and Chairman of the Children’s Climate Foundation.

This year marks the sixth edition of the Children’s Climate Prize, one of the world’s biggest international climate awards for young innovators, entrepreneurs, conservators and changemakers. Tune in Friday November 19 at 10am CET to take part of the celebrations of Reshma Kosaraju and the finalists of 2021. The digital broadcast is accessible to everyone at www.ccprize.org.