Pegasus Capital Advisors and SDG Digital Transformation Lab Announce New AI Collaborations and a Digital Social Vulnerability Index to Combat Climate Vulnerability

New Collaborations with the Center for Effective Global Action, UC Berkeley, can drive AI-based predictive analytics and innovations for agriculture, food systems, climate resilience, and inclusive economic opportunity in some of the world's most climate-vulnerable regions

STAMFORD, Conn., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Pegasus Capital Advisors, a leading private equity firm specializing in blended sustainable investments across climate, food, water, and ocean ecosystems, and the SDG Digital Transformation and Sustainability Solutions Lab – which brings together academics and other experts to unlock innovative AI and data science approaches and insights aimed at accelerating the SDGs – today announced the launch of a new machine learning–powered social vulnerability index. The initiative is designed to help policymakers anticipate and reduce the impacts of extreme climate events in some of the world's most at-risk regions.

The Data-Driven Social Vulnerability Index (DDSVI) is being developed in collaboration with Stanford Professor Vasilis Syrgkanis, who leads the Stanford Causal AI Lab. DDSVI builds on existing UNDP SDG AI Lab Digital Social Vulnerability Index (DSVI), an innovative tool that helps UN organizations, governments and non-profit organizations (NGOs) better understand the spatial patterns of social vulnerability (SV). DSVI uses machine-learning (ML) techniques, which automate the whole process. Moreover, DSVI uses geographic information systems (GIS) technologies to develop high-resolution maps for improved representation of a country's SV beyond administrative boundaries.

The DDSVI application of causal inference can potentially identify why certain communities face higher losses from climate-induced shocks—and which interventions most effectively reduce those risks. This causal inference-based model, which leverages machine learning, connects social vulnerability factors to measurable outcomes such as mortality, recovery time, and economic disruption—enabling more precise and equitable resilience planning. By integrating public datasets, satellite imagery, and local data, the model identifies which factors most strongly drive climate vulnerability—such as lack of green spaces or reliance on monoculture farming—and prioritizes the interventions that most effectively reduce risk.

"This next phase of the Lab's work demonstrates how advanced data analytics can help governments and communities move from awareness to action," said Craig Cogut, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Pegasus Capital Advisors and Co-Founder of the SDG Digital Transformation Lab. "By combining Pegasus's investment experience in climate resilience with the Stanford and U.C. Berkeley communities' technical expertise and UNDP's global reach, we can accelerate data-driven solutions that protect people and livelihoods on the front lines of climate change."

The index will initially focus on extreme heat and drought in India, Indonesia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, regions facing rising risks to health, food systems, and infrastructure due to extreme heat.

"DDSVI can bend the arc of the AI/ML transformation and the impact measurement field toward sustainable futures that leave no one behind," said Radhika Shah, Co-President of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs and Co-Founder of the SDG Digital Transformation Lab. "DDSVI has tremendous potential to accelerate the SDGs across the global majority world."

"We are entering an era where we can see systemic crises before they unfold," said Claudia Thieme Cogut, Co-Founder of the SDG Digital Transformation Lab. "This model allows us to translate that visibility into early, evidence-based interventions that can save lives and strengthen community resilience."

"This collaboration reflects a leap forward in how we measure and manage climate risk," said Professor Vasilis Syrgkanis, Director of the Stanford Causal AI Lab. "By quantifying the causal links between vulnerability and hazard outcomes, policymakers can understand not just who is at risk, but why—and what works to reduce that risk."

The project is part of the Lab's broader mission to advance sustainable sovereign AI collaborations, applying cutting-edge digital innovation and modeling to anticipate cascading risks in food systems, infrastructure, livelihoods, oceans, clean energy, and ecosystems across several countries in Asia and Africa. The initiative exemplifies how the SDG Digital Transformation Lab is uniting academic innovation, investment expertise, and development partnerships to tackle the world's most urgent climate challenges. The Lab will continue expanding its modeling applications across regions and sectors—building a global network of data-driven resilience tools to support the communities most affected by climate change.

Carson Christiano, Executive Director of the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at U.C. Berkeley, agreed to explore synergies between CEGA and the Lab on AI-based Sustainable Agriculture and Food innovation in Africa. "We look forward to collaborating with the SDG Digital Transformation Lab to bring the power of rigorous academic research and new evidence-based digital insights and AI tools to advance systemic change around food security in Africa," said Carson.

The Lab brought together leaders from across sectors and geographies during Climate Week 2025 in NYC for a strategic roundtable dialogue around Reimagining AI to Advance a Sustainable Future. Participants included leaders from philanthropy such as Heather Grady, Vice President, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors; academics from Stanford and U.C. Berkeley, including Lab advisor Stanford Prof. Ashish Goel, the incoming Chair of the Management Science and Engineering Department; Charlotte Pera, Executive Director of the Sustainability Accelerator at the Doerr School for Sustainability at Stanford; and Carson Christiano, Executive Director of CEGA at U.C Berkeley. Across the discussion, there was broad agreement that AI must ultimately serve the public good—promoting climate resilience and local community leadership. 

As part of the effort to advance Sustainable Sovereign AI models, the SDG Digital Transformation Lab is co-launching an AI taskforce in collaboration with strategic partners of the Lab, and adding five new AI and sustainability leaders to its Advisory Board:

• Muneerah Merchant, CEO, Aga Khan Foundation USA
• Sam Hamilton, former SVP of Data & AI at Visa and AI Advisor to CEO
• Patricia Holly Purcell, Senior Advisor, Istanbul Centre for Private Sector in Development, Sustainable Finance Hub, UNDP
• Sanjay Purohit, CEO and Chief Curator, Center for Exponential Change
• Prof. Supreet Kaur, development economist, behavioral, labor economics, U.C. Berkeley

Pegasus Capital Advisors is exploring the deployment of sustainable, distributed AI data centers and infrastructure across multiple regions in the Global South. These efforts will complement software initiatives such as DDSVI and other AI innovations being catalyzed by the Lab in collaboration with other partners.

For more information, please contact Radhika Shah at [email protected] and Michael Acampora at [email protected].

About the SDG Digital Transformation Lab
The SDG Digital Transformation Lab is a unique cross-disciplinary collaboration bringing together top technology and academic minds, including from Silicon Valley, and the Stanford and U.C. Berkeley communities, alongside private sector leaders, investors, and grassroots organizations, to co-create technology-driven solutions that accelerate progress toward the SDGs. By combining the expertise of leading academics, private sector experts, and regional leaders with on-the-ground work in vulnerable regions, the Lab aims to address local challenges in areas such as climate adaptation, sustainable agriculture, water, renewable energy, women's livelihood and ocean's health, particularly in the Global South. The SDG Digital Transformation Lab was launched during UN Climate Week in 2024, with support from Pegasus Capital Advisors, which serves as the fund manager for two Green Climate Fund-backed investment vehicles: the Global Fund for Coral Reefs, and the Subnational Climate Fund. Combined, these Funds cover more than 40 countries with the mandate to deliver measurable climate, environmental, and social impacts.

The Lab complements the aims of the partnership between Pegasus Capital Advisors and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which supports 170 countries to advance the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. UNDP joined the Lab as an inaugural partner during the official launch. Learn more at SDGDigitalTransformation.org.

About Pegasus Capital Advisors, L.P.
Pegasus Capital Advisors is the fund manager for the Green Climate Fund, the world's largest climate investment vehicle, supporting more than 40 countries via the Subnational Climate Fund and the Global Fund for Coral Reefs. Pegasus was the first North American private equity firm accredited by the Green Climate Fund and works closely with governments and local organizations to build stronger, more resilient communities. Learn more at www.pcalp.com.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Pegasus Capital Advisors