AI's Climate Impact: Managing Rapid Growth to Enable Net Zero Emissions
• AI has potential to reduce emissions but also drives increased electricity demand, risking higher emissions that undermine climate goals
• Unmanaged growth of AI could add a major new source of emissions that is not accounted for in climate scenarios like IEA’s Net Zero by 2050
• Steps needed to ensure AI has net zero emissions power with renewables, surcharges to fund clean energy, address emissions in AI governance initiatives
• Use AI itself to find innovative ways to enable net zero or negative emissions from rapid growth
• Governments, companies must integrate need for net zero AI emissions into managing AI's impacts and climate strategies