IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2608.24670.html

AI worsens climate change, integrated assessment shows

Author

Listed:
  • Huiying Ye
  • Richard S. J. Tol
  • Fangzhi Wang

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) interacts with climate in various ways, while a unified analytical framework of this intricate interplay is lacking. To align AI investment with climate policy, we propose such a framework integrating AI's impact on emissions, output, and climate damages into the DICE model. We distinguish between ICT-like and Industrial Revolution (IR)-like AI prospects. Calibrated to the best available evidence, we find that AI development is net polluting. Under current low abatement, ICT-like AI adds 0.1 degree C to 2100 warming, while IR-like AI adds 0.8 degree C. The associated climate costs offset roughly one-fifth and one-quarter of AI's economic gains, respectively. Meeting the 2 degree C target saves the optimal ICT(IR)-like AI investment rate by 2100 from 3.3% (5.1%) under the low-abatement scenario to 3.7% (12.7%), indicating that mitigation is complementary to AI development. We further show that the investment trade-off between AI and abatement is driven primarily by AI's economic prospects, not by its emissions footprint.

Suggested Citation

  • Huiying Ye & Richard S. J. Tol & Fangzhi Wang, 2026. "AI worsens climate change, integrated assessment shows," Papers 2608.24670, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2608.24670
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.24670
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2608.24670. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.