New IEA report suggests concerns that AI could exacerbate climate crisis ‘appear overstated’

Despite AI’s hefty carbon emissions, a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) took a more optimistic outlook on how AI will affect the climate crisis—and even claimed that “concerns that AI could accelerate climate change appear overstated.”

The report, which focuses on AI’s energy usage, underscored how under-equipped the electrical grid is for incoming data centers and provided recommendations for how the large amount of energy they consume could be mitigated.

One of the recommendations focused on where data centers are located: Almost half of US data centers are in “five regional clusters,” so the IEA suggested that new data centers be built “in areas of high power and grid availability.” Plus, like a recent study from Duke University, the IEA recommended that data centers operate using on-site generators and do so “more flexibly.”

And the stakes are high: “If the electricity sector does not step up,” the report said, “there is a risk that meeting data center load growth could entail trade-offs with other goals such as electrification, manufacturing growth, or affordability,” a warning other energy authorities have also sounded in recent months.

The report was, however, more reassuring about the effects AI will have on the environment. Though it acknowledged that optimizing AI to stabilize electricity networks won’t be adequate to combat the climate crisis, the report said that “the widespread adoption of existing AI applications could lead to emissions reductions that are far larger than emissions from data centers.”

“AI can be a tool in reducing emissions,” the report said, “but it is not a silver bullet and does not remove the need for proactive policy.”

Data center emissions could be further curtailed—or at least delayed—by the recent news that Microsoft has paused data center construction projects in Ohio and Wisconsin.

“Data center planning is a multi-year and capital-intensive program we plan for years in advance to ensure we have sufficient infrastructure in the right places,” Microsoft President of Cloud Operations and Innovation Noelle Walsh said in a LinkedIn post. “We are slowing or pausing some early-stage projects.”