AI data centers will consume three times the combined annual electricity consumption of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria by 2030: UN | Today’s news
On the occasion of World Environment Day, the United Nations University published a report indicating the environmental impact of data center operations. From water and land footprint to energy consumption, these AI-powered global data centers are projected to consume nearly three times the combined annual electricity consumption of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria by 2030. To meet the surge in demand from AI, the water footprint is expected to match the basic annual domestic water needs of all 1.3 billion people in sub-Saharan Africa.
Research published on June 3 by the UN Institute for Water, Environment and Health warned of the growing environmental costs of artificial intelligence, as rapid deployment could also strain scarce land resources and create mountains of e-waste. The researchers emphasized that the environmental costs of AI and data centers should not be assessed in isolation through carbon emissions, as this has a far-reaching impact. A study quantifying the carbon, water and land footprint of AI electricity consumption worldwide and highlights the main differences between these footprints in the world’s 20 largest data center hubs.
Investigative team leader and UNU-INWEH Director Professor Kaveh Madani said: “This report is not a case against artificial intelligence, a technological transformation that is improving the lives of billions of people around the world. It is a call to use it responsibly and proactively address its unintended impacts to make it sustainable and equitable.”
Raising calls for sustainable and responsible use of natural resources for AI advancement, he added: “We have a narrow window to ensure that the backbone of our era’s technological revolution develops within planetary limits, and that the communities that provide critical minerals for AI advancement and those that host its infrastructure and e-waste will also be among those who benefit.”
The report describes why the environmental costs of AI and data centers should consider water and soil footprints in addition to carbon emissions, and finds that most existing assessments are systematically mismeasured. AI sustainability measured by a single metric can hide trade-offs and shift environmental burdens, researchers have found. Notably, the above three footprints do not move in the same direction, as “low carbon” emissions correspond to a higher water and land footprint.
Elaborating on the key findings, UNU-INWEH researcher and lead author of the report, Dr. Miriam Aczel, said: “What surprised us the most was how often the choices that look greenest in terms of carbon end up being worse for water or land. She added: “If we continue to judge the sustainability of AI by carbon alone, we might think that renewables are making AI infrastructure clean, but that solves one problem while creating other problems, often in places that didn’t ask for it.”
