UNEP chief calls for sustainable, environmentally sound digital transformation
Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen, at a High-Level Roundtable at the ongoing 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York called for sustaninable , environmentally sound digital transformation
The digital revolution is accelerating. If we use, and use well, the tools this revolution is bringing, they can slow the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. Help developing nations leapfrog to cleaner and more prosperous development pathways. And, of course, help to deliver sustainable development.
The Global Digital Compact that will emerge from the Summit of the Future is therefore vital. My thanks to the Governments of Zambia and Sweden for their leadership. As the Compact acknowledges, we must pay close attention to the environmental impacts of digital technologies, so that the costs do not outweigh the benefits.
As I hope that the world has learned from our climate failures and climate procrastination, prevention is not only better, but a lot easier, than the cure. That means that the environmental dimension of technologies such as AI cannot be an afterthought, a ticking of the proverbial box.
We know that technologies such as AI impact the environment, from mining to emissions, from water consumption to E-waste – with issues of injustice deeply entrenched. But these impacts are not researched enough, particularly in the global south. This is why UNEP is today releasing an Issues Note on the Environmental Impacts of AI.
UNEP’s Chief Digital Officer will shortly provide more detail on the note, including the actions UNEP recommends to ensure that AI works for people and planet, but please allow me a few words.
As UNEP’s note shows, AI produces significant greenhouse gas emissions. Data centres needed for AI are drawing more power, at a time when almost 800 million people lack access to electricity. Meanwhile, the need for cooling may lead to water use equivalent to half of the UK’s by 2027. This comes when close to two billion people lack access to adequate water and sanitation.
There are also serious impacts from the extraction of critical minerals and metals vital to AI chips and, of course, the energy transition. Water and air contamination. The degradation of indigenous people’s lands. Loss or displacement of biodiversity, including species such as Great Apes, our closest living relatives.
So, it is good to note that the Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals last week released seven voluntary principles designed to transform mineral value chains by putting human rights, justice, equity and environmental protection at the forefront.
The reality is that as a civilization we must now invest in a sustainable supply of minerals and metals to drive the digital transformation and energy transition. And the reality is also that these minerals and metals are indeed a huge opportunity for many nations to increase revenues for sustainable development – if they break exploitative colonial patterns and ensure value addition is done at home.
However, since ramping up unsustainable mining would further damage the environment, and exhaust supplies, we need to approach the sector with clear-headedness, not with a mind clouded by a “gold rush fever” approach. We must tread carefully rather than rush forward, blinded by the sweet deals dangling before our eyes, like those who rushed to pan for gold in California in 1849.
We need cool heads to deliver solid policies on environmental stewardship, circularity, equity and justice. Because we are lagging far behind. Currently, only around one per cent of rare earth elements are recycled. One per cent. Looking at e-waste in general, only 22 per cent is recycled and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.
Before we start, we need to have clear environmental management in place. Circularity policies in place. Justice in place. Transparency on the deals in place. Revenue management in place to prevent what economists refer to as Dutch disease – an increase in the economic development of one sector and a decline in other sectors.
The bottom line is that investment in “value addition” and in recovery of materials from circularity will be critical to expand economic and labour opportunities. To this end, governments, international organizations and the private sector must unite under the Global Digital Compact. By working together, we can ensure equitable access to digital technologies. Minimize the environmental impacts. And use these technologies to create economic growth and sustainability on a healthy planet that supports us all.
