AI is Threatening Natural Resources for Billions, UN Scientists Warn
A new United Nations report warns that the rapid growth of artificial intelligence could place huge pressure on the planet’s resources. AI data centres may consume water needed by 1.3 billion people by 2030, the report says.
Unless governments heed the rising environmental costs of AI, the rapid rollout could also strain scarce land resources and create mountains of electronic waste, the report warns.
The 56-page report from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) states that water, land, and energy are being drawn in across the globe to feed the rising demand for the technology.
It found that if data centres were considered a country, they would rank 11th in the world for electricity consumption in 2025 and consume enough water to fill 1.8 million Olympic-sized pools.
The report also highlights the hidden environmental costs of AI tools that have become commonplace in modern life.
The findings showed virtual AI tools would have a significant impact on the physical world, said Kaveh Madani, the report’s lead author.
“Behind every prompt, image or video lies a growing infrastructure of energy systems, water withdrawals, land use, mineral extraction and electronic waste,” he said.
The report, he says, is a call to make those hidden environmental costs visible before they become unmanageable.
“The public debate still often treats AI as software, but AI is also physical infrastructure: data centres, electricity generation, cooling systems, transmission networks, chips, minerals, land and water.”
The UN report called for greater transparency, efficient design and global co-operation on data centres, and issued a series of recommendations including disclosures about energy use, more community consultation, and government-issued standards.
Rising Emissions, Depleting Water and Vanishing Land
Here are the key takeaways from the report, which highlights the surging resource demands of the artificial intelligence boom.
• Last year, data centres consumed 448 terawatt-hours of electricity globally, more than the whole of Saudi Arabia. AI accounted for a fifth of the total.
• They also consumed 4.5 trillion litres of water, enough to meet the needs of more than 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa, while generating 189 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
• “The public debate still often treats AI as software, but AI is also physical infrastructure: data centres, electricity generation, cooling systems, transmission networks, chips, minerals, land and water,” said Kaveh Madani, the report’s lead author.
• Annual power consumption from data centres is projected to double to 945 TWh by 2030, around the same as the whole of Japan, with AI accounting for 40% of the total.
• Water consumption is expected to reach 9.3 trillion litres, while CO2 emissions will rise to 399 million tons.
• The data centre land footprint is also forecast to increase from 6,900 square km (2,664 square miles) last year to more than 14,500 square km by 2030, the report said.
• While AI could boost efficiency by optimising power grids and reducing waste, overall electricity and water demand is still likely to rise as countries and corporations race to build new capacity.
• “Right now, the competition for growing faster than others overshadows the very basic principles of sustainable growth,” Madani added.
• “AI will not simply ‘run out’ of water or electricity worldwide. But in specific places, poorly planned data centre expansion could collide with existing resource pressures. That is why responsible planning matters now, before infrastructure and dependencies become locked in.”
– based on reports by Reuters (3 June 2026) and SBS News (4 June 2026)
The UNU-INWEH report, “Environmental Cost of AI’s Energy Use: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints” can be accessed here:
https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:10647/UNU-INWEH-Report-The_Env_Cost_of_AI-2026.pdf