AI as an Environmental Challenge: Mapping Safeguards in EU Environmental and Climate Law to Address the ‘Silence’ in the EU AI Act

Abstract

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies advance, they offer fascinating opportunities for environmental protection, conservation, and climate adaptation, yet also introduce risks such as high energy consumption and potential environmental degradation. This paper investigates how AI can be harnessed to support the EU’s dual goals of digital innovation and green transformation while addressing the environmental and climate challenges associated with its use. The emerging concept of ‘Green AI’ provides a framework to examine these challenges and opportunities, particularly how AI can contribute to the EU’s twin transitions of digital and green transformation. Given that the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) does not tackle AI as an environmental challenge per se, the paper focuses on mapping regulatory pathways for integrating environmental sustainability into AI development and use in the field of EU environmental and climate law. Through mechanisms like Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies, impact monitoring, and mandatory sustainability assessments, the paper advocates for robust measures to ensure that AI is developed and used in alignment with the growing normative demand for a sustainable society. Ultimately, it essential to transition towards a regulatory approach that not only maximizes AI’s environmental benefits while minimizing its ecological footprint, but also advances a digitized industry that actively supporting sustainability and climate neutrality in line with the EU Green Deal.