AI and environmental sustainability

Book section : Chapter

While AITs promise to optimize supply chains, circular economies, and renewable energy, they also incur significant environmental costs which are often overlooked in policy debates. The chapter discusses the concept of “digital pollution” to emphasize the physical and ecological impacts of AI infrastructures, data storage, resource consumption, and toxic emissions. It then underscores the limitations of conventional cost-benefit analyses in assessing AI’s environmental effects and calls for a value-based and political approach. The chapter emphasizes the need to transparently evaluate who benefits from or is harmed by AI’s environmental impact and to allocate responsibilities accordingly. While AI can contribute to sustainable development, its environmental costs and impacts must be addressed beyond the current fragmented and often market-driven approaches. Critical reflections on these issues are essential for guiding a global governance project that effectively considers a multitude of values, stakeholders, and regulatory mechanisms to ensure the sustainability of AI technologies.

Authors: Lucivero, F

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Host title: Handbook on Public Policy and Artificial Intelligence
• Pages: 158-169
• Chapter number: 12
• Series: Handbooks of Research on Public Policy series
• Place of publication: Cheltenham
• Publication date: 2024-06-21
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.4337/9781803922171.00019
• EISBN: 9781803922171
• ISBN: 9781803922164
• Language: English
• Keywords: digital pollution; responsibilities; ethics; environmental sustainability; values; cost–benefit analysis
• Subtype: Chapter