Artificial intelligence is being cast as both a hero and a villain at the U.N. climate talks in Brazil.
Vote to demolish Yorktown Memorial Hospital tabled by city council members, owners sayEmployees evacuated after fire at Northeast Side Frito-Lay warehouse, SAFD saysA Brazilian flag flies outside the venue for the COP30 U.
N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. Attendees walk past boxes made to look like the Eiffel Tower with a sign that reads"1.5 degrees Celsius under threat" talking about the Paris Agreement during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. A Brazilian flag flies outside the venue for the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. in Brazil, artificial intelligence is being cast as both a hero worthy of praise and a villain that needs policing. Tech companies and a handful of countries at the conference known as COP30 are promoting ways AI can help solve global warming, which is driven largely by thelike oil, gas and coal. They say the technology has the potential to do many things, from increasing the efficiency of electrical grids and helping farmers predict weather patterns to tracking deep-sea migratory species and designing infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather.Climate groups, however, are sounding the alarm about AI's growing environmental impact, with its surging needs for electricity and water for powering searches and data centers. They say an AI boom without guardrails will only push the world farther off track from goals set by 2015 “AI right now is a completely unregulated beast around the world,” said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity. On the other hand, Adam Elman, director of sustainability at Google, sees AI as “a real enabler" and one that's already making an impact.Michal Nachmany, founder of Climate Policy Radar, which runs AI tools that track issues like national climate plans and funds to help developing countries transition to green energies like solar and wind, said there is “unbelievable interest” in AI at COP30. “Everyone is also a little bit scared,” Nachmany said. “The potential is huge and the risks are huge as well.”compared to a few years ago, according to Nitin Arora, who leads the Global Innovation Hub for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the framework for international climate negotiations.to promote ideas and solutions that can be deployed at scale, he said. So far, Arora said, those ideas have been dominated by AI. The Associated Press counted at least 24 sessions related to AI during the Brazil conference's first week. They included AI helping neighboring cities share energy, AI-backed forest crime location predictions and a ceremony for the first AI for Climate Action Award — given to an AI project on water scarcity and climate variability in the Southeast Asian nation of Laos. Johannes Jacob, a data scientist with the German delegation, said a prototype app he is designing, called NegotiateCOP, can help countries with smaller delegations — like El Salvador, South Africa, Ivory Coast and a few in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — process hundreds of official COP documents.spoke about how AI can solve issues facing the power sector. Elman with Google stressed the “need to do it responsibly" but declined to comment further.“AI is so democratizing," Parker said. “If you think about climate tech, climate change and all the sustainability challenges we’re trying to solve here at COP, which one of those challenges would not be solved better and faster, with more intelligence.” Princess Abze Djigma from Burkina Faso called AI a “breakthrough in digitalization” that she believes will be even more critical in the future. Bjorn-Soren Gigler, a senior digital and green transformation specialist with the European Commission, agreed but noted AI is “often seen as a double-edge sword” with both huge opportunities and ethical and environmental concerns.The training and deploying of AI models rely on power-hungry data centers that contribute to emissions because of the electricity needed. The International Energy Agency has tracked a boom in energy consumption and demand from data centers,Data centers accounted for around 1.5% of the world’s electricity consumption in 2024, according to the IEA, which found that their electricity consumption has grown by around 12% per year since 2017, more than four times faster than the rate of total electricity consumption., specifically the operations of data centers, also includes the consumption of large amounts of water in water-stressed states, according to Su with the Center for Biological Diversity, who has studied how the data center boom threatens U.S. climate goals. Environmental groups at COP30 are pushing for regulations to soften AI’s environmental footprint, such as mandating public interest tests for proposed data centers and 100% on-site renewable energy at them. “COP can not only view AI as some type of techno solution, it has to understand the deep climate consequences," Su said.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’sThis story was produced as part of the 2025 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Tejano star Bobby Pulido’s congressional run emphasizes bipartisanship, rural concernsFBI, Homeland Security among agencies in Sunday’s ‘court-authorized activity,’ officials sayRepublican governors visit soldiers at military base in Eagle PassFormer SA Mayor Ron Nirenberg announces bid for Bexar County JudgePolice union leader wants SAPD Chief McManus out over ‘knee-jerk’ reactionsAre feral pigs coming to a neighborhood near you? Texas A&M expert weighs potential causesNeighborhood fights for speed bumps after 70-year-old woman hit, killed on her front porchWhooping cough cases on the rise across Texas, including in San AntonioMapping the dozens of data centers in San Antonio9 families sue Camp Mystic after deadly July 4 floods
Adam Elman Nitin Arora Michal Nachmany Jean Su Josh Parker Technology Johannes Jacob Climate Environment World News
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Swarm Disastrous COP30 Climate Conference in BrazilSource of breaking news and analysis, insightful commentary and original reporting, curated and written specifically for the new generation of independent and conservative thinkers.
Read more »
COP30 enters decisive phase as ministers tackle toughest climate disputesDeveloping nations assert greater influence while negotiators confront gaps on finance, emissions and trade.
Read more »
Brazil pushes COP30 delegates to agree on solutions to global warmingHost country Brazil’s tactful guidance as host of the U.N. climate conference is raising hopes for ambitious action on fighting global warming as speeches continue from the high-level ministers in town. Those addressing delegates Tuesday include U.K.
Read more »
COP30: “Without Cultural Memory, There Can Be No Future”Being the first UN climate conference hosted in the Amazon, the question for many has been: What will become of the Amazonian people?
Read more »
Small island nations demand emission cuts at COP30 climate talksJamaica has joined other small island nations at the United Nations climate talks to urge immediate action on climate change. On Monday, vulnerable countries emphasized the need for stronger emission cuts to meet the 1.5-degree Celsius target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. They also called for increased financial support from wealthy nations.
Read more »
Artificial intelligence sparks debate at COP30 climate talks in BrazilArtificial intelligence is being cast as both a hero and a villain at the U.N. climate talks in Brazil.
Read more »