UNU-INWEH 4d ago

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, spoke at the London Climate Action Week, where he launched the AI Environmental Transparency Initiative, calling on major artificial intelligence companies to publicly disclose the environmental impacts of their systems and commit to powering data centres with renewable energy by 2030. The initiative comes as demand for AI infrastructure continues to rise worldwide. According to the Secretary-General, AI data centres already consume more electricity than most countries, and by 2030 could use enough water to meet the basic needs of all 1.3 billion residents of sub-Saharan Africa for an entire year. The initiative follows the release of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) report, *Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints', which examines the growing resource demands associated with AI development and deployment. To learn more, read the full report: https://unu.edu/inweh/collection/environmental-cost-of-AIs-Enrgy-Use-Carbon-water-and-land-footprints