A group of more than 100 organizations has published an open letter calling on the AI industry and regulators to mitigate the tech’s harmful environmental impacts just days before leading industry CEOs, heads of state, academics, and nonprofits descend on Paris for a major AI conference.
The letter, which bears the signatures of prominent advocacy groups including Amnesty International and the AI Now Institute, notes there’s “increasing evidence” of AI systems driving up emissions, “locking in” reliance on non-renewables, and exhausting critical resources. Yet little is being done to address these negative externalities as the tech sector and governments justify further investments in AI, according to the letter.
“AI can never be a ‘climate solution’ if it runs on fossil fuels,” the letter reads. “We, the signatories, demand that AI systems be made compatible with our planetary boundaries.”
The signatories lay out clear demands, calling for — among other things — AI infrastructure, including data centers, to be fossil fuels-free. The rush to build infrastructure to develop and run AI has strained electric grids to the breaking point, forcing some utilities to lean on coal and other environmentally unfriendly sources of power, the letter notes.
“Global data center electricity consumption could double to over 1,000 terawatts by 2026 — equivalent to Japan’s annual electricity use,” reads the letter, citing data from the International Energy Agency. “In parts of the world, this rising demand is pushing power infrastructure to its limits, prolonging and intensifying our dependency on fossil fuels, the pollution from which is linked to public health issues.”
The letter also urges governments and tech companies to ensure that new data centers don’t deplete water and land resources, and maintain transparency about AI’s environmental impacts throughout the “entire AI lifecycle.”
Most data centers, which can span millions of square feet, require lots of water not only to cool the chips within, but to maintain safe humidity levels for computing equipment. By one estimate, if 1 in 10 U.S. residents asked OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT to write an email a week, it’d cost more than 435 million liters of water.
The letter’s signatories assert that their demands “represent the bare minimum” needed to mitigate the ongoing harm from unchecked AI expansion.
“Countries and communities most vulnerable to rapid climate change are first to be impacted by the harms of AI and its computational demands, and they have less say in its development,” the letter reads. “We must move beyond viewing technological progress as inherently beneficial or limitless, and instead prioritize AI processes that contribute meaningfully to society while minimizing environmental and human harm.”
Unfortunately for the undersigned, the U.S., where most major AI companies are based, has signaled that it intends to embrace growth at any cost.
President Donald Trump has said that he will use an energy emergency declaration to quickly approve new power stations for AI data centers, including those that use coal for backup power. Trump has also promised to fast-track environmental approvals and other permits for any company making an investment of $1 billion or more domestically.
