AI at COP29: Technology’s Role in A Greener Future

From the 11^th to the 22^nd of November 2024, over 56,000 delegates descended upon Baku, Azerbaijan, for the 29^th annual Conference of the Parties (COP29). This made it the second- largest COP in history, only surpassed by COP28 in Dubai the previous year. The event was labelled the ‘finance COP’, due to its focus on raising funds to help developing countries mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis. However, it was subject to heavy criticism for watered-down policies and for being held in a fossil-fuel reliant state.

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Behind the headlines, COP29 marked a series of firsts for the digital sector. With a growing appreciation for the potential of emerging technologies such as AI, coupled with a rising concern over their energy demands, COP29 hosted the first ‘Digitalisation Day’. While this wasn’t the first time technology had been discussed at a COP (COP28 saw the announcement of a Green Digital Action campaign), the resulting Declaration on Green Digital Action claims to provide a crucial stepping stone for sector-wide collaboration to ‘green’ this rapidly advancing industry. But is it all just talk?

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Using Tech, Abusing the Planet

Discussions during the inaugural Digitalisation Day were primarily comprised of two key issues:  

1. How to harness emerging technologies to optimise processes and reduce the carbon footprint of human activities.
2. How to mitigate the environmental impacts of these same technologies as their usage increases.  

The previous instalment of this column detailed the growing electricity and water demands of data centres, but issues extend beyond that to e-waste, mining, manufacturing processes, and more. While COP29 acknowledged that technology could be one of many keys to tackling the climate crisis, we must ensure that in the process, we’re not actually making things worse.

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The day consisted of various events, including a high-level roundtable on the importance of intergenerational dialogue, and a World Bank session discussing the link between energy and digital transformation. Speakers highlighted the importance of a stable national grid – something AI tools can help achieve. These tools can help deploy technology for environmental purposes, but speakers also raised concerns about how we don’t yet fully understand the impact AI will have on energy demand.  

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A Dummy Declaration

COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev hailed the day’s result (the Declaration on Digital Green Action) as ‘a unique opportunity to combat the climate crisis while urging the digital industry to take responsibility for its environmental footprint’. But what does it actually say?

The main body of the document is disappointingly vague, with grand objectives such as ‘mitigating digitalisation’s climate impact’ and ‘fostering sustainable innovation’. While these are laudable aims, they are lacking in detail and seem adapted from other generic climate goals. Despite the discussions surrounding the inevitable involvement of the energy industry, the issue only gets a brief mention under the objective of ‘leveraging digital technologies and tools for climate action’. The document ‘encourages the improvement of digital technologies for energy modelling and forecasting to make grids more resilient to climate change’s impacts and to support clean energy initiatives adopting digital solutions. Other objectives are similarly foundational, feeling almost a decade behind the curve – reflecting the ongoing challenges faced by an industry developing so rapidly that regulators and policymakers struggle to keep up.

However, some hope can be found in the declaration’s preamble, which notes with concern the adverse climate impacts associated with the full life cycle of digital technologies. This issue has only recently started to receive media attention, and academic literature on the topic is still scarce. So, having it acknowledged in a COP document could be seen as significant, or at least, not insignificant.  

Most disappointingly – and perhaps reflecting the largely private nature of the sector – only around half of the government delegates present at discussions endorsed the outcome document. Notable omissions included the UK, the USA, Canada and India. Whilst the premise of the declaration offers a small glimmer of progress, it ultimately appears to be a means of checking a box rather than providing a concrete measure for positive change.  

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Looking Ahead: COP30 and beyond

After a year of election shake-ups and worsening geopolitical tensions, it’s anyone’s guess as to what we’ll see at COP30 in Brazil. Most of the issues and solutions presented at COP29 boiled down to the necessity of collaboration between the private sector, governments, and funders – a task that seems increasingly difficult. With NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) already predicted to be more conservative and domestically focused due to dissatisfaction with the unambitious finance agreements reached, it remains to be seen whether- and how- the Declaration on Digital Green Action will fit into countries’ climate action plans.