Sunday Times 2
WNPS lecture on climate change, AI
View(s):‘Climate change and AI: How sustainable is AI?’ is the focus of this month’s Nations Trust WNPS (Wildlife and Nature Protection Society) lecture that will be delivered by Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane on Thursday, Nov 20 at 6 pm at the Jasmine Hall of the BMICH. The lecture is free and open to all.
Shiranee Tilakawardane
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, with global adoption reaching 72% in 2024. However, this expansion coincides with escalating climate concerns. The environmental footprint of digitalisation is a pressing concern as this digital transformation is taking place in parallel with the depletion of raw materials, water stress, pollution and waste generation.
The environmental footprint of AI spans its entire life cycle, hardware production, software development, training, inference, and disposal, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, raw material depletion, and e-waste. Data centres, central to AI operations, are highly resource-intensive, consuming vast amounts of energy and water. Projections indicate that by 2026, global AI energy demand could surpass the annual electricity use of Belgium, while water demand may reach 6.6bn cubic metres, posing serious challenges in already drought-stricken regions like Chile and Arizona.
The hardware behind AI, GPUs and chips, relies on minerals such as cobalt, lithium, and copper, often extracted under environmentally destructive and exploitative conditions, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This raises issues of inequity, as communities least responsible for climate change disproportionately bear its burdens.
A sustainable approach is essential to ensure AI innovation supports economic growth without deepening the climate crisis.
Justice Shiranee Tilakawardane is the Deputy Chair of the Judicial Integrity Group and is working with UNODC to amend the commentaries in the Bangalore Principles with regard to judicial standards on ethics and conduct of Judges. A former consultant to the Sri Lanka Judicial Training Institute, she has worked as a national judicial educator for over 10 years, and is an international consultant, expert and educator on equality, human rights, gender rights, child rights, and environmental law for over 30 years.