By Damien Gayle
Publication Date: 2026-04-24 16:31:00
It emerged that the UK government had significantly underestimated the impact of artificial intelligence on the climate, after officials raised their estimate of the technology’s carbon emissions by more than a hundredfold.
According to new data quietly released this week, energy consumption by AI data centers in the UK could cause the emission of up to 123 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO₂) over the next 10 years – about the same as 2.7 million people produce.
This latest figure replaces a previous estimate – now deleted – that emissions would reach a maximum of 0.142 million tonnes of CO₂ in a single year.
The revision comes amid increasing concerns about the carbon impact of AI and at a time when calls for the world to reduce emissions to mitigate the climate emergency are becoming increasingly urgent.
“We still have a few years until our carbon budget is exhausted,” said Patrick Galey, research director for the climate campaign Global Witness. “To waste what little bandwidth we have left –…
