By MAVIC CONDE

MANILA, Philippines — As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more part of our lives, a coalition of civil society groups calls for an end to tech companies’ reliance on fossil fuels to protect the planet.

“[T]here is increasing evidence of AI systems driving up emissions and locking in reliance on fossil fuels, while exhausting critical resources like water, land and raw materials, intensifying environmental harms across the technology supply chain, and accelerating the expansion of resource-intensive computational infrastructure beyond sustainable limits,” the joint statement led by the Green Screen Coalition read.

The coalition of funders and practitioners aims to bridge the digital rights and climate justice movements. They received support from over 120 civil society groups ahead of the AI Summit, held in Paris on February 10 and 11 to address the need for sustainable AI standards. 

Testing and running AI requires extensive data processing, which consumes a significant amount of electricity, as does housing AI in data centers with thousands of servers.

It reiterated the scientific consensus on phasing out fossil fuels to address our planet’s overheating, which manifests as devastating floods and heat waves, among other things, as well as how climate-vulnerable countries and communities “have less say in its development” are the first to be harmed by AI and computing demands. 

The coalition warned that “burning more fossil fuels to power these data centres would worsen climate impacts and violate international commitments to limit global warming,” citing the United States and parts of Europe as examples of “driving an expansion in fossil gas capacity and, in some cases, keeping coal plants open.”

Likewise, the coalition criticized major tech companies such as Google and Microsoft for being unsure whether they will meet their own climate and energy targets, as well as Amazon and Meta for claiming to be 100 percent renewable while engaging in efforts that allow them to continue to burn fossil fuel.

“The AI market is dominated by a set of privatised, commercial large-language models developed by the world’s most powerful tech companies with no powerful accountability mechanisms,” the coalition noted.

That is why it sees transparency as a “crucial element that aids the public in deciding whether the infrastructure is truly in their interest,” while also acknowledging that “it’s not a silver bullet.” The group believes that the government and supply chain can step up by “placing moratoria or caps on the energy demand of data centers”  and rejecting experimental carbon capture technologies, among others. 

It calls for public participation in decision-making, particularly from primary impact areas, the use of renewable energy to power new data centers, more credible emission accounting rather than energy offsets, and the disclosure and termination of contracts for AI-powered oil exploration and drilling. (RTS)