News roundup: UN says carbon-only metrics ‘mismeasure’ AI’s environmental toll; SEC moves to scrap climate disclosure rules

UN says AI’s environmental cost is being ‘systematically mismeasured’

The United Nations (UN) University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) has published a report quantifying the carbon, water and land footprints of AI’s energy use, saying that the technology’s environmental cost is being “systematically mismeasured by carbon-only assessments”.

The report projects that global data centres will consume 945 TWh of electricity by 2030, 9.3tn litres of water, and have a land footprint exceeding14,500 km².

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