The United Nations COP (Conference of the Parties) 30 summit in Brazil is set to run from 10th November to 21st November 2025.
It will be attended by a large number of dignitaries and leaders. Although President Trump of the USA is not expected to attend given his scepticism about climate change, and President Xi Jinping of China is also not expected to be there, a delegation will be present from the world’s largest emitter of carbon gases. Thus, the two major countries driving the climate crisis are uncommitted to resolving it.
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AI and the Paris agreement
In Paris in 2015 most countries around the world originally agreed to try to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above ‘pre-industrial’ levels. However, it now appears that goal is unachievable.
The issue has now been exacerbated by exploding investment in AI as the latest IT revolution impacts the world. The incredible investment in AI and the power and water resources to enable it are astonishing – projected to be nearly $1.5trn by the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta, with an associated growth in power needs of around 30%.
The AI leaders are certainly looking to innovate to address this increased demand, but there has been a switch in their approaches from one of sustainability to one of a desperate search for power from whatever source. This may change over time, but at the moment the race is focused on growing AI market share and nothing else.
COP 30 looks irrelevant
Recent extreme weather events such as Hurricane Melissa are part of the physical evidence that climate change is real and harming people and economies. The October 2024 floods in Spain resulted in 229 deaths. There have always been hurricanes and floods, but they are getting more frequent and more severe.
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By GlobalDataRob Pritchard, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Technology and Services at GlobalData, observes: ‘Of course everyone wants to exploit the potential of AI – it is transformative.
‘The issue is that there has been a general rolling back of commitments to address climate change. The commercial imperative has taken precedence over the climate change challenge.
‘The problem is that is literally means people are drowning or being devastated by wildfires. At some stage there will be a pushback. This is not just political, it is societal. COP 30 looks irrelevant in the developing AI era.’
