Topic: 2025 – Artificial Intelligence and Resource Consumption
Country: Bangladesh
Delegate Name: Cindy Jiang
AI is at the forefront of 21st-century innovation, transforming productivity, scientific research, and daily life. Although AI developed steadily through the late 20th century, its growth has peaked dramatically since 2022 with rapid breakthroughs in language models, generative technologies, and advanced coding tools. However, despite these immense benefits, we cannot overlook the significant environmental strain created by large-scale AI data centers and the growing energy demands of modern AI systems. Like many developing nations, Bangladesh has seen these innovations emerge on a smaller scale, influencing sectors ranging from education to healthcare. However, Bangladesh does not represent a country at the forefront of AI development, in fact, most AI resources and tools are imported by leading countries like the US or China. As a country that is vulnerable to weather events like flooding and tropical storms, AI infrastructure must be considered in relation to its resource vulnerabilities. Specifically, AI data centers require massive amounts of electricity and water for continuous computation and cooling. AI data centers differ from traditional ones, as they are specifically designed for AI and machine learning tasks with high intensity workloads. As a result, they require more energy and cooling to keep up with continuous processing demands. This high energy use leads to increased CO₂ emissions, contributing to climate change. For example, Stanford University’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) found that GPT-3 (2020) produced approximately 588 tons of CO₂ during training, equal to the annual emissions of 32 average Americans. Together, these factors place substantial strain on the environment, affecting human health, ecosystems, and long-term resource availability.
With global concerns kept in mind, Bangladesh prioritizes many climate-induced strategic aims within its 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to overcome this topical issue: affordable and clean energy; responsible consumption and production; sustainable cities and communities; and industry, innovation, and infrastructure. These specific aims highlight Bangladesh’s commitment to protecting the environment while still supporting national development. Additionally, Bangladesh is a committed signatory to the Paris Agreement (2015). The agreement serves as an international treaty that combats climate change by reviewing countries’ emissions and providing funds for developing countries to keep the global temperature under 2°C, mitigating the effects of climate change and global warming. We call for responsible AI development that is fair and equitable for all countries globally, balancing sustainable resource use, and the protection of climate vulnerable countries, especially as AI data centers rely heavily on natural resources and produce significant CO₂ emissions. We offer a few possible solutions to approach AI development —modeling off the Paris Agreement— including reviewing countries’ ai energy consumption and carbon emissions, establishing a worldwide clean AI development fund for developing countries, and implementing “green” AI data centers that rely on clean, renewable, and sustainable energy sources. This fund would not only support the creation of climate-resilient data centers, but also incentivize research on more efficient AI models, such as elephant and bee models, to reduce overall energy consumption. In conclusion, Bangladesh urges the international community to recognize the importance of sustainable AI development and the risks associated with high-consumption AI systems. We call for a collaborative global commitment that supports developing nations in expanding technological capability while protecting the peace of our world’s people and planet.
Works Cited
“About the UN in Bangladesh.” United Nations,
https://bangladesh.un.org/en/about/about-the-un
“AI for Climate Action Innovation.” United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), https://unfccc.int/ttclear/tec/aica_forum#:~:text=The%20AI%20for%20Climate%20Action,climate%20change%20in%20developing%20countries
Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook: Bangladesh – Economy,
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/bangladesh/#economy
IBM. “AI Data Center.” IBM Think,
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-data-center
Stanford University Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). AI Index Report 2025, Chapter 1,
https://hai.stanford.edu/assets/files/hai_ai-index-report-2025_chapter1_final.pdf
UNFCCC. “AI for Climate Action – Technical Paper.” UNFCCC,
https://unfccc.int/ttclear/misc_/StaticFiles/gnwoerk_static/aica_forum/357118cf9f8a4099918a4ff7085b9004/d7a5aebf2ca24c57982b35e9fa26e4e8.pdf
United Nations. “The Paris Agreement.” United Nations Climate Change,
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/paris-agreement
