Sustainability singularity theory for AI green innovation climate governance and future generations

Abstract

The accelerating climate crisis demands frameworks that move beyond compliance and incrementalism, offering transformative paradigms of sustainability. This Perspective introduces Sustainability Singularity Theory (SST) as a novel lens to envision the tipping point at which artificial intelligence (AI), green technology innovation, and climate governance converge to generate self-reinforcing sustainability transitions. SST advances the claim that sustainability can emerge as an autonomous paradigm—an ontological shift where human and technological agency co-evolve to secure ecological stewardship and intergenerational justice. Central to this framework is the Sustainability Singularity Index (SSI), defined by four components, AI (artificial intelligence adoption), BI (business innovation), CA (climate action), and R (resistance factors). The SSI functions as a heuristic tool for understanding how feedback loops among these forces accelerate resilience while exposing the ethical risks of technocratic rationalities. Grounded in systems theory, phenomenology, and ecological ethics, SST highlights both the promise and perils of AI-enabled transitions. Illustrative examples include renewable energy optimization, digital circular economy platforms, and sustainable finance, positioned as pathways toward inclusive sustainability futures. The Perspective concludes by outlining ethical, managerial, and policy directions that place moral imagination and green technologies at the heart of humanity’s long-term trajectory toward higher stages of civilizational development and the horizon of a Type 1 civilization.