The unsuitability of existing regulations to reach sustainable AI

TL;DR

This paper critically evaluates the EU's current AI regulations, highlighting their inadequacies in addressing AI's environmental impacts and proposing strategic improvements for effective governance.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of regulatory gaps in EU AI policies and offers strategic recommendations for more effective environmental governance of AI.

Findings

Current regulations have narrow disclosure requirements.

Existing frameworks rely too much on voluntary standards.

Regulatory gaps risk enabling greenwashing and market failures.

Abstract

This paper examines the European Union's emerging regulatory landscape - focusing on the AI Act, corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence regimes (CSRD and CSDDD), and data center regulation - to assess whether it can effectively govern AI's environmental footprint. We argue that, despite incremental progress, current approaches remain ill-suited to correcting the market failures underpinning AI-related energy use, water consumption, and material demand. Key shortcomings include narrow disclosure requirements, excessive reliance on voluntary standards, weak enforcement mechanisms, and a structural disconnect between AI-specific impacts and broader sustainability laws. The analysis situates these regulatory gaps within a wider ecosystem of academic research, civil society advocacy, standard-setting, and industry initiatives, highlighting risks of regulatory capture and greenwashing. Building on this diagnosis, the paper advances strategic recommendations for the COP30 Action Agenda, calling for binding transparency obligations, harmonized international standards for lifecycle assessment, stricter governance of data center expansion, and meaningful public participation in AI infrastructure decisions.