AI: "Some major and proven environmental risks" (Hugues Ferreboeuf, The Shift Project)

'AI is a phenomenon with two linked major and proven environmental risks: the very high electricity consumption of data centres and their location, which destabilises the energy sector in all countries", says Hugues Ferreboeuf, digital Project Manager at the French think-tank Shift Project, at the presentation of the association's report "Artificial intelligence, data, calculations: what infrastructures in a low-carbon world?'on 30/09/2025.

The document analyses the data centre sector in relation to the deployment of artificial intelligence on global, European, and French scales. According to the Shift Project, the sector emitted 250 Mt CO₂e per year, a figure which is expected to rise to between 500 and 920 Mt CO₂e per year by 2030.

'Our economies tend to be carbon-intensive. If we develop AI on a large scale, it will increase greenhouse gas emissions. In geopolitical terms, AI also runs the risk of prolonging our dependence on American gas', adds Hugues Ferreboeuf.
'The lack of transparency (or even organised opacity) of the dominant players in the field of AI; the lack of…