UN Report Warns AI Could Consume Drinking Water for 1.3 Billion People by 2030
Original: 聯合國發表報告：2030 年 AI 將喝掉 13 億人份的水！
A UN-linked report warns AI’s water, energy, land, and infrastructure footprint is becoming a major governance challenge.
INSIDE summarizes a United Nations University report arguing that AI’s environmental cost cannot be measured by carbon alone. The report projects AI-supporting data centers could use 945 TWh of electricity annually by 2030, while cooling water demand may exceed the annual drinking-water needs of 1.3 billion people. It also says inference dominates lifecycle energy use and that concentrated cloud infrastructure deepens global inequality.
INSIDE reports on a June 2026 United Nations University report titled “The Environmental Cost of AI Energy Consumption: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints,” which argues that the environmental debate around AI has been too narrowly focused on electricity and carbon emissions. According to the article, the report estimates that by 2030 the global data centers supporting AI could consume 945 TWh of electricity per year, approaching 3% of total global electricity use. The article compares that level with twice France’s 2025 electricity consumption and roughly three times the combined annual electricity use of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria.
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