Data centres are expected to double their electricity and water consumption by 2030 as the rapid build-out of artificial intelligence strains global resources, the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health warned on Wednesday.

The report projects annual power use from data centres will rise to 945 terawatt-hours by the end of the decade, roughly the electricity consumption of Japan, from 448 TWh last year. AI’s share of that demand will jump from one-fifth to 40 per cent. Water consumption is forecast to reach 9.3 trillion litres, while carbon dioxide emissions climb to 399 million tonnes. The land footprint of such facilities is also set to more than double to over 14,500 square kilometres.

Dr Kaveh Madani, the institute’s director and lead author of the report, stressed that the environmental debate remains too narrowly focused. “The public debate still often treats AI as software, but AI is also physical infrastructure: data centres, electricity generation, cooling systems, transmission networks, chips, minerals, land and water,” he said.

Last year alone, data centres consumed 4.5 trillion litres of water — enough for more than 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa — and generated 189 million tonnes of CO₂. The researchers caution that while AI can boost efficiency by optimising power grids or cutting waste, the net effect is likely to be a steep rise in resource use as nations and companies race to expand capacity.

“Right now, the competition for growing faster than others overshadows the very basic principles of sustainable growth,” Madani added, urging governments to integrate resource constraints into planning before infrastructure choices become locked in.