The United Nations has provided a cautious outlook on the future impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in a new report, highlighting the need for sustainable practices as humanity becomes increasingly dependent on technology.
The “Environmental Costs of Artificial Intelligence: Carbon, Water, and Land Footprint” report, released on June 3, provides a glimpse into the environmental picture expected in 2030 if demand for AI continues to grow at its current pace.
Advances in AI don’t necessarily mean the technology will reduce power consumption, experts say. In fact, the United Nations predicts that energy use will double by 2030, accounting for 3% of the world’s total electricity.
According to data from the intergovernmental forum International Energy Agency (IEA), AI data centers will consume approximately 415 terawatt hours of electricity, equivalent to approximately 1.5% of global energy consumption in 2024.
This increase in energy consumption due to advances in AI follows the Jevons Paradox, an economic principle coined by economist William Stanley Jevons. This suggests that increasing the efficiency of a resource may actually lead to an increase in the overall consumption of that particular resource.
Environmental costs of AI
But it’s not just AI data centers run by tech giants like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) that people should worry about. More companies are now developing and offering AI tools and applications, which is likely to contribute to lower prices for AI models.
Cheaper AI tools will be beneficial for industries looking to automate tasks and support employees, but will ultimately lead to increased demand, The Conversation reports.
Given the United Nations’ prediction that AI will consume 3% of the world’s total energy by 2030, this is expected to cause humanity to experience even more severe global warming. Even before the AI boom, the world was already struggling to keep average global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius, and the United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) 2025 report argues that this threshold is likely to be breached in the coming decades.
A warmer climate poses significant challenges, but economies may also have to deal with water scarcity, as AI data centers require more water for cooling. Research estimates that a simple 100-word AI prompt uses approximately 500 milliliters of water, while large-scale AI data centers require up to 5 million gallons (18 million liters) of water to operate each day.
Experts say in a United Nations study that cooling AI data centers will require 9.3 trillion liters of water by 2030, an amount said to exceed the annual drinking water consumed by the world’s population.
In the United States alone, AI data centers are expected to use up to 73 billion gallons (276 billion liters) of water per year by 2028.
Christopher Dalbom, a water resources law expert at Tulane University, told the Guardian: “The AI industry is doing everything in its power to gain market advantage, while the rest of us have to deal with massive increases in water demand in areas already in drought.” “We don’t have enough water to go around. With the explosion of data centers, I think a crisis is inevitable.”
AI data centers not only use large amounts of water and energy, but also require vast amounts of land, with the United Nations estimating that by 2030, an area nearly 10 times the size of Mexico City will be needed to house this growing amount of infrastructure.
As their numbers grow, so does the burden of having to deal with e-waste, with experts predicting that by 2030 these data centers will generate up to 2.5 million tons of e-waste annually.
Smarter AI growth, smaller footprint
But planting 6.7 billion trees over 10 years to offset the high energy demands of AI and combat climate impacts will not be enough.
The UN report suggests a balanced approach to AI development and deployment, explaining that governments and companies need to integrate environmental considerations at every stage of AI progress, including the need to disclose the impacts of AI projects on their surroundings.
It is also important that AI data centers and materials used to run models are sourced ethically and sustainably, and this can be achieved through appropriate regulation.
The experts also noted that responsible use of AI will require processes to recycle and safely dispose of materials when AI systems reach the end of their lifecycles, to minimize environmental damage.
“By focusing on transparency, pursuing efficiency, choosing wisely as users and institutions, protecting communities that face disproportionate burdens, and collaborating across borders, societies can ensure that advances in information match advances in care,” the UN report said. “Responsible AI is possible when capabilities and stewardship grow together within global limits.”
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