Page 69 - The Annual AI Governance Report 2025 Steering the Future of AI

The Annual AI Governance Report 2025: Steering the Future of AI

Quote:

• "We believe that inclusive international cooperation is the key to ensuring that no
country or community is left behind." (H.E. Engineer Majed Al Mesmar, Director-
General of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority
of the United Arab Emirates)

2.6 Environmental Sustainability and AI Infrastructure

The environmental impact of AI is becoming more pronounced. Training frontier models as
well as inference (i.e., the stage where an AI system takes new input like a question or an image
and produces an output, such as a chatbot reply) consumes significant amounts of energy and
water, with data centers increasingly straining local grids. Participants stressed that AI cannot
be divorced from the climate agenda.

Sustainability, it was argued, should be
considered a core principle of responsible
AI, not a side issue. Many of the regions most
vulnerable to climate change are also least
responsible for AI’s environmental burden.

Opportunities exist in aligning AI governance
with the climate agenda. Initiatives such as
the Coalition for Sustainable AI, standards
for green data centers, and reporting
requirements for energy use were highlighted
Figure 14: Gabriela Ramos, then- as steps toward ensuring that AI’s growth is
Mexico (Assistant Director-General for environmentally responsible.
Social and Juman Sciences, UNESCO)

AI can also play a role in addressing climate challenges, for example by optimizing energy grids,
modeling environmental risks, and supporting climate research.

Quote:
• “AI governance must include sustainability through energy efficiency, through
green infrastructure, through policies that align technological progress with
climate responsibility.” (Anne Bouverot, Special Envoy of France for AI)”

Dive deeper in the Whitepaper “Themes and Trends in AI Governance”:
• 5.2 Energy and Sustainability

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