As AI Grows, So Does Its Environmental Footprint

As artificial intelligence reshapes industries from healthcare to defense, concerns are mounting over its environmental cost — particularly its rising demand for electricity and water.

Long hailed as a tool for efficiency and innovation, AI is now under scrutiny for the heavy resources required to develop and deploy advanced models. The infrastructure powering AI, including massive data centers running around the clock, is pushing global energy and water systems toward new limits.

According to a March 2024 report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), global electricity consumption by data centers could more than double by 2030, with AI-specific computing projected to quadruple in energy demand. By the end of the decade, data centers could consume up to 945 terawatt-hours of electricity annually — nearly equal to Japan’s total power usage and almost three times that of the United Kingdom in 2023.

The surge is driven by the scale and complexity of modern AI systems. Training a single large language model, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 or Google’s Gemini, can emit as much carbon dioxide as five cars produce over their entire lifetimes, according to a study in Nature. Most emissions occur during the training phase, which requires feeding vast amounts of data through high-powered servers.

Water usage is also a growing concern. AI data centers consume large quantities of water to cool servers, often drawing from already stressed local supplies. A joint investigation by The Guardian and SourceMaterial in April 2025 found that companies including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are operating or planning data centers in drought-prone regions such as Arizona, Chile’s Santiago region, and parts of Spain.

Microsoft’s data center in Goodyear, Arizona, used an estimated 51 million gallons of groundwater in 2022 alone.

Compounding the issue is a lack of transparency. Many tech firms do not disclose details about their environmental impact, citing competitive or security concerns. A study by the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that few AI companies make their carbon accounting public, and even fewer submit to independent audits.

Despite these challenges, AI also holds potential for addressing environmental issues. Machine learning tools are already helping reduce carbon emissions through smarter energy use, traffic management, and building design. Google’s DeepMind, for instance, cut the energy needed to cool Google’s data centers by 40% using AI algorithms.

In the public sector, AI is being deployed to monitor deforestation, detect methane leaks, and model climate change impacts such as rising sea levels. The IEA reports that widespread adoption of AI in sectors like energy and transport could reduce more emissions than the technology itself generates — if deployed responsibly.

Still, experts warn that sustainability must be integrated into AI development from the outset, not as an afterthought. While some governments are moving toward regulation, efforts remain fragmented. The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act includes provisions for environmental reporting, and some U.S. agencies now require contractors to follow sustainability guidelines. But without a global framework, most environmental protections are still voluntary.

Researchers are also exploring technical solutions, such as more efficient model architectures and localized data processing — known as edge computing — to reduce resource use. Techniques like model distillation, quantization, and sparse training can significantly cut power consumption without sacrificing performance.

Ultimately, experts say the burden of action falls on the broader AI ecosystem, including developers, investors, and regulators.

“If the tools meant to solve the climate crisis end up worsening it, the failure won’t be technical — it will be ethical,” said a researcher involved in the IEA report.

While consumers enjoy seamless AI experiences — from chatbots to real-time translation — the environmental toll remains hidden. But experts warn the illusion will not last.

“The question isn’t whether AI will shape the future,” the researcher added. “It already has. The real question is whether we’ll shape AI responsibly before it reshapes our planet in ways we can’t undo.”