While Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds the promise of raising productivity, stimulating innovation, and altering the nature of work across the globe, its adoption so far is uneven, largely reflecting deep-rooted structural differences among advanced economies, emerging markets, and low-income countries (IMF, 2025). Countries with advanced technological infrastructure and skilled workforces are likely to be more exposed to AI and able to harness it more effectively, potentially boosting economic growth. In contrast, EMs and most LICs may struggle to keep pace, exacerbating existing income disparities and widening the income gap between countries.

Considered in the context of the green growth transition, AI is a “double edged sword”. Its transformative potential can help tackle climate and environmental crisis, with AI-driven technologies used to optimize energy grids, enable precision agriculture, monitor deforestation, and accelerate the transition to low carbon energy systems, thus significantly contributing to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions, preserving biodiversity and protecting our oceans.

At the same time, the environmental footprint of AI itself is already growing and is expected to increase. The processes associated with AI—from its hardware and its software cycle—already pose significant environmental challenges. Data centre electricity consumption, for example, is set to more than double to around 945 TWh by 2030 (IEA, 2025).

Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that AI is developed and deployed respecting the ecological limits of our planet, without exacerbating further existing inequalities in economic and social development.

Launched at the 2025 Paris AI Action Summit, the Coalition for Sustainable AI is a pioneering community of stakeholders, to advance concrete initiatives for making AI beneficial to our environmental goals. This coalition provides a collaborative platform for governments, industries, research institutions, and civil society to foster responsible AI development and applications that support the preservation of our planet. GGGI, the ITU and the Republic of Korea are important stakeholders collaborating as part of these initiatives. Together, these efforts are shaping a global framework for accountability, innovation, and collaboration toward a climate-resilient digital future.

This high-level session will bring together relevant actors from the Sustainable AI Coalition, GGGI Member States, Partners and Innovators to take stock of advancements and challenges at the intersection of AI and environmental sustainability, convening key actors to provide updates on progress and key areas to watch and support in the next years. 

The session will also highlight synergies between digital innovation, sustainability, and inclusive growth, highlighting specific examples of the use of AI for climate action, and green growth.