AI climate footprint to be COP31 priority, Turkey says

Turkey said Monday that AI's energy use and climate footprint will be a priority when it hosts the COP31 climate summit in Antalya in November.

COP31 President and Turkish Climate Minister Murat Kurum said the summit would address “growing fears over the rise of AI” and its carbon footprint, including pressure on technology companies to disclose their energy use and power data centers with clean energy.

“We must openly discuss AI's growing energy consumption and it is time for governments to start setting the terms,” Kurum said in a statement in New York, where he is attending Climate Week.

The COP31 presidency said a voluntary “political pledge” on how AI can support climate goals is being developed with a United Nations agency, with a draft to be unveiled before the summit. A second initiative would showcase pilot projects on what Turkey calls the responsible use of AI.

The pledge would not require approval from the nearly 200 countries that make formal decisions by consensus at UN climate summits. COP hosts also encourage countries each year to support non-binding pledges on a separate action agenda.

This year's summit has an unusual structure: Australia is presiding over the political negotiations, while Turkey is hosting the event and designing the sideline agenda.

Turkey's main proposal is a “35x35” electrification target, seeking to raise the global share of energy demand met by electricity to 35 percent by 2035. Electrification means replacing technologies that burn fossil fuels directly, such as gas heating and diesel vehicles, with electric alternatives.

Turkey also announced a global mechanism to track progress on electrification and other initiatives aimed at reaching the goal.

Extra electricity would need to come mainly from clean sources such as solar and wind to help tackle climate change, while about one-third of the world's electricity is still produced using coal. Turkey's 35x35 target does not explicitly say how the additional power should be produced.

Claire Smith from the campaign network Beyond Fossil Fuels said the pledge “leaves the backdoor open for governments to conceal or justify expanded fossil fuel use under the guise of electrification.”

Formal climate negotiations are due to start on November 9, with countries still divided over the path to phasing out planet-warming fossil fuels.