Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints

This report, Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints, by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) on its 30th anniversary, examines one of the most underexplored consequences of AI’s rapid expansion: the environmental footprints of the energy required to power it. As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in economies, public services, research, communication, and everyday life, it depends on a growing physical infrastructure of data centers, advanced chips, cooling systems, electricity grids, water resources, land, and critical mineral supply chains. The report shows that AI is not only a digital technology, but also a material system with measurable environmental costs.