- UN warns that AI’s environmental footprint goes far beyond just energy
- AI data centers could consume the water equivalent of 1.3 billion people by 2030
- Report calls for more diverse reporting and strong governance to protect people
A new UN report says the impacts of artificial intelligence are far from equal. Instead, its environmental impact is underestimated because most discussions focus only on carbon emissions.
Instead, the United Nations is urging businesses, investors and governments to also include water consumption and land use in their assessments.
This comes as AI data centers alone are expected to consume 945 TWh of electricity by 2030, the equivalent of 1.95 billion homes, or three times the populations of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria.
The UN is concerned about the environmental impacts of AI
Aside from electricity, the UN also warns that their water use by the end of the decade would be equivalent to 1.3 billion people in sub-Saharan Africa (9.3 trillion liters), and that land use could be equivalent to 14,500 square kilometers (twice as large as Jakarta, home to 32 million people).
But the AI industry is under pressure from more than just the environment: unlike conventional software, artificial intelligence relies heavily on physical data center campuses, network connections, cooling systems and semiconductors, significantly extending its impact to both Scope 2 and Scope 3.
Professor Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, stressed that the report should be used to block AI. Madani instead calls for responsibility and sustainability.
“We have a narrow window to ensure that the backbone of the technological revolution of our time grows within planetary boundaries and that the communities that provide the minerals essential to AI progress and those that host its infrastructure and e-waste are also among those who benefit.”
Interestingly, while much of the debate often revolves around model training, researchers now believe that inference (day-to-day usage after deployment) accounts for about 80-90% of AI’s energy demand. ChatGPT alone reportedly processes around 2.5 billion prompts per day, and the energy demand only increases as the quality of responses improves.
Looking ahead, the UN is calling for mandatory reporting of carbon, land and water footprints as well as “efficiency by design” approaches. The document also encourages stronger governance to prevent environmental costs from being transferred to the most vulnerable communities.
Follow TechRadar on Google News And add us as your favorite source to get our news, reviews and expert opinions in your feeds.
