Quantum for Climate and Earth Systems
How quantum computing, quantum simulation and quantum sensing may fit into climate intelligence, Earth observation and resource strategy without displacing the classical stack that already runs them
Climate and Earth systems are becoming one of the most demanding tests of whether quantum technologies can move from research promise to operational infrastructure. The problem is not generic sustainability, but the growing need to measure, simulate and interpret complex physical systems with greater precision: climate dynamics, greenhouse-gas emissions, clean-energy materials, groundwater, subsurface resources, critical minerals and infrastructure exposure to climate risk. Today, these tasks are dominated by high-performance computing, Earth observation, AI, numerical modelling and institutional climate services. Quantum computing, quantum simulation and quantum sensing can become relevant only where they improve specific bottlenecks inside this existing stack, rather than replacing it wholesale.