UNESCO highlighted the environmental and ethical dimensions of Artificial Intelligence at the Adopt AI Summit on 26 November 2025, urging stronger international cooperation to ensure AI supports climate action rather than harming it.
At the AI for the Planet Mainstage in the Grand Palais in Paris, UNESCO convened a high-level panel entitled “Greening AI and Greening with AI: From Climate Footprint to Climate Action”. The session brought together speakers from government, industry, and the United Nations system.
Moderated by Guilherme Canela, Director for Digital Inclusion and Digital Transformation at UNESCO, the discussion examined a shared challenge: AI is using increasing amounts of energy, water, and computing resources, while being used to support climate mitigation, adaptation, and environmental decision-making.
From Footprint to Impact
Rather than treating these as two separate issues, speakers focused on how they are closely linked and how solutions need to account for both. AI is already widely applied in fields including climate analysis and environmental monitoring, but its long-term value will depend on how efficiently AI systems are designed and deployed.
From a public sector perspective, Hélène Costa de Beauregard, Project Director at the French Ministry of Ecological Transition, shared France’s approach to the idea of frugal AI. She specifically explained how public policy, funding choices, and procurement can be used to encourage more efficient and less resource-intensive AI systems.
Abou Amani, Director of Hydrology at UNESCO, spoke about the increasing use of AI in water management, climate science, and early warning systems, stressing the urgent need to ensure that energy-efficient AI strategies remain accessible, particularly in low-resource settings. He highlighted UNESCO’s ongoing work on green and energy-efficient AI, including policy guidance and capacity-building initiatives that support governments in deploying resource-efficient AI solutions for climate and water-related applications.
On the private sector side, Paul Pelissier, Global Sustainability Principal at SAP EMEA, talked about how companies can improve the efficiency of their AI systems, while also using AI in practical ways to support sustainability work inside organizations.
Across perspectives, speakers agreed that no single solution, or actor, can handle these challenges alone. Stronger collaboration between governments, businesses, international organizations, and the academia is key to translating shared environmental ambitions into measurable and lasting impact.
Showcasing AI in Practice
In parallel with the panel, UNESCO hosted a dedicated booth at the summit, offering participants a comprehensive overview of UNESCO’s AI work across sectors. The booth highlighted UNESCO’s, initiatives on Green AI and sustainable digital transformation, the Data Governance Toolkit and its implementation, its Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, as well as AI-related use cases in the Natural Sciences.
The booth provided a open space for more informal dialogue with policymakers, private sector practitioners, researchers, and civil society. Discussions centered on the gap between high-level know-how and everyday realities. Participants shared practical constraints in their contexts, such as data availability, AI infrastructure, and organizational inertia against introducing new solutions. However, they also acknowledged that there was a growing interest in green AI solutions, especially when it creates both cost savings and environmental benefits.
The event followed COP30 in Belém and took place amid broader international discussions on AI and sustainability, including ahead of the India AI Impact Summit scheduled for February 2026.
UNESCO reiterated its commitment to promoting sustainable and responsible AI and in supporting cooperation and knowledge-sharing among governments, the private sector, and international partners.
READ MORE: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-puts-sustainable-ai-spotlight-adopt-ai-summit-paris
