Topic: 2025 – Artificial Intelligence and Resource Consumption
Country: China
Delegate Name: Shyla Chadda
United Nations Environment Programme
Artificial Intelligence and Resource Consumption
China
Shyla Chadda
Forest Hills Eastern High School
The use of Artificial Intelligence is important to address, as it can cause significant environmental issues. In 2020, the growth of AI spread globally through websites like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. According to the UN Environment Programme, producing a typical 2 kg computer requires about 800 kg of raw materials. Data centers use water for cooling AI servers as they generate immense heat. This water-intensive structure can consume 1 to 5 million gallons of water per day for a single center. The Organization for World Peace states that AI global demand could lead to 4.2-6.6 billion cubic meters of water withdrawal by 2027. Additionally, a high demand for natural resources such as lithium, cobalt, and copper, many of which are located in China, continues to add to the sustainability concerns. AI threatens to increase carbon emissions and resource scarcity in water. Without proper regulation, countries could face resource conflicts and climate setbacks. The UN has taken steps to combat the environmental risk of AI by publishing “AI End-to-End: The Environmental Impact of the Full AI Lifecycle.” This identified the wasteful impacts of AI and called for mandatory reporting from companies. Additionally, UNESCO created the Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, which has been adopted by 193 countries. In addition to this, the United Nations should increase the standards and amount of resources that countries should have for AI-related infrastructure.
China recognizes the importance of mitigating resource consumption due to AI, and agrees on strong global cooperation to create sustainable development in the continuation of AI. With an aim of becoming the world’s “major AI innovation centre by 2030,” China has over 700+ large-scale data centers, as well as 70% of the world’s rare natural resources that are used in semiconductors, increasing pressure on mining regions. With these strong goals on advancing AI, China still emphasizes the importance of sustainability. In recent years, China has produced major AI advancements such as DeepSeek, a large model known for being more energy-efficient than many Western systems. DeepSeek helped motivate the creation of China’s underwater data center off Hainan in 2023, to reduce water scarcity, as it is used for its cooling. This system can support 7,000 AI conversations per second and achieves a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of around 1.1, which is far lower than the global average of 1.4. Even with these improvements, China’s AI expansion is still rising, as in 2024, data centers consumed 140 billion kWh, which is 31% more than in the year before. This is projected to reach up to 400-600 billion kWh by 2030. To address these challenges, China has begun shifting AI infrastructure toward developing energy-saving technologies such as “Full Scaling Automation” in 2023, whose job is to automatically adjust how much computing power, cooling, and electricity an AI model uses in real time, depending on workload. It has already saved 1.5 million kWh and has reduced 947 tons of CO₂. Additionally, on an international scale, China created the Global AI Governance Initiative in 2023. This calls for the responsible development of AI, focusing on reducing environmental burdens. China has also supported the UN Global Digital Compact, which outlines principles for environmentally responsible technology use. China also supports the UN’s Global Digital Compact and participates in UNEP’s World Environment Situation Room (WESR), which uses AI to monitor global environmental data. In 2024, China endorsed the Shanghai Declaration on Global AI Governance, calling for lower-emission AI systems and greener data centers. These actions align with China’s push to reduce the environmental strain of AI.
China urges the United Nations to collaborate to mitigate AI-driven resource consumption and reduce the environmental crisis. China recommends establishing a sub-committee to further implement regulations and policies toward specifically promoting energy-efficient AI infrastructure and standardizing AI environmental guidelines. China emphasizes maintaining further innovation on the development of AI, but while still limiting damage. Funding can be included internationally by anyone wanting to be involved in a change, and to help benefit the environment. China is involved in change through modernization, and hopes to become further involved in change through collaboration.
