  Climate change has become one of the biggest global problems increasingly
compromising the Earth's habitability. Recent developments such as the
extraordinary heat waves in California & Canada, and the devastating floods in
Germany point to the role of climate change in the ever-increasing frequency of
extreme weather. Numerical modelling of the weather and climate have seen
tremendous improvements in the last five decades, yet stringent limitations
remain to be overcome. Spatially and temporally localized forecasting is the
need of the hour for effective adaptation measures towards minimizing the loss
of life and property. Artificial Intelligence-based methods are demonstrating
promising results in improving predictions, but are still limited by the
availability of requisite hardware and software required to process the vast
deluge of data at a scale of the planet Earth. Quantum computing is an emerging
paradigm that has found potential applicability in several fields. In this
opinion piece, we argue that new developments in Artificial Intelligence
algorithms designed for quantum computers - also known as Quantum Artificial
Intelligence (QAI) - may provide the key breakthroughs necessary to furthering
the science of climate change. The resultant improvements in weather and
climate forecasts are expected to cascade to numerous societal benefits.
