Over 100 partners, including 37 technology companies, 11 countries, and five international organisations, have formed the Coalition for Environmentally Sustainable Artificial Intelligence to drive global efforts in ensuring AI development aligns with environmental sustainability. Led by France, the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Telecommunication Union, the coalition aims to foster dialogue and collaborative initiatives across the AI sector.
The announcement was made at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, where heads of state, government officials, international organisations, business leaders, academics, and civil society representatives gathered to discuss AI innovation, regulation, and ethical development. The coalition seeks to place environmental sustainability at the core of AI policy discussions, alongside existing concerns around security and ethics.
The coalition will focus on AI’s role in decarbonising economies, reducing pollution, preserving biodiversity, protecting oceans, and maintaining planetary boundaries. It plans to develop standardised methods to measure AI’s environmental impact, establish comprehensive life cycle analysis frameworks, and prioritise research into sustainable AI practices. The initiative aims to mitigate AI’s growing energy demands, which are straining power grids, increasing electronic waste, and consuming significant water resources for data centre cooling.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted the urgency of designing AI systems that consume less energy, stating that AI can be a force for climate action and energy efficiency but that power-intensive AI systems are already placing an unsustainable strain on the planet. He emphasised the importance of developing algorithms and infrastructures that optimise power use.
While AI is being deployed to tackle environmental crises, such as mapping methane emissions and detecting illegal deforestation, concerns over its rising energy consumption and environmental footprint persist. Recent studies warn that the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure, including data centres, is exacerbating electronic waste and increasing electricity and water usage.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, France’s Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention, hailed the summit as a turning point for sustainable AI, stating that for the first time, ecological transition had been at the heart of discussions at an international AI summit. She announced that more than 90 partners, including 37 companies, had joined the coalition, marking a major step forward in addressing AI’s environmental impact.
While 190 countries have adopted non-binding ethical guidelines on AI, including environmental considerations, legally binding policies remain limited. The European Union and the United States have introduced legislation to curb AI’s environmental footprint, but regulatory frameworks worldwide remain fragmented.
Efforts to integrate sustainability into AI development are gaining momentum. In France, the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology and the Ministry of Ecological Transition have brought together scientists, companies, and public institutions to outline challenges and opportunities for sustainable AI. The Frugal AI Challenge, a hackathon focused on energy-efficient AI models, has also been launched, tackling issues such as climate disinformation, wildfire risk analysis, and illegal deforestation detection.
UNEP has been actively assessing AI’s environmental footprint. In 2024, it released a report, Navigating New Horizons, exploring AI’s environmental risks and benefits. In 2025, it plans to publish a guide for energy-efficient data centres, based on international best practices and global standards, to inform investors, development banks, and policymakers on sustainable computing.
Golestan Radwan, UNEP’s Chief Digital Officer, stressed the need for urgent action, stating that AI’s ability to address complex global challenges is becoming clearer, but so too are its environmental costs. She added that the coalition brings together key stakeholders to ensure that as AI technology evolves, its net impact on the planet remains positive.
