Experts advice India’s AI startup landscape to invest in green AI to fuel both the country’s sustainability and technological growth.
This advice is given because recent studies have found that generative AI’s data centres produce alarmingly high carbon emissions, seeking heat control from the globe’s limited fresh water reserve, with its training of language learning models costing thousands of megawatt hours of electricity.
According to experts and reports, half a liter of water is used to generate 10-50 ChatGPT responses, and the carbon emissions of each ChatGPT query is 3-6 gms of CO2 release, with a count of 4-5 billion queries occurring per day.
If these continue what will tomorrow look like?
“Data centres will multiply rapidly, guzzling energy and water, contributing to Earth temperature. On the other hand, as a technology, it will enable fewer humans to control multitudes and thus perpetuate the current extractive and exploitative economy,” public policy expert and steering committee member of Pesticide Action Network India, Narasimha Reddy Donthi said.
‘It is natural for India, having 720 million open AI users, to majorly contribute in the harmful carbon emissions. To minimise these effects, the general public is advised to use environmentally conscious AI models, whereas upcoming AI models should be looking at less server energy per response,” Professor Jitesh Lalwani, Woxsen University’s assistant dean of global impact and social change said.
“Usually, businesses try to negate these effects by using solar power and practicing in other socially responsible business methods, but the key to ensuring real carbon footprint control is to use inherently less energy-consuming AI models,” he added.
S&R Law Firm, in its advice to Indian businesses to invest in green AI, states that for countries like India—which have ambitious net-zero goals but are yet to establish a dedicated AI regulatory framework—adopting best practices from around the world is crucial
S&R law firm, in its advice to Indian businesses to invest in green AI, states that for countries like India— which have ambitious net-zero goals but are yet to frame a dedicated AI regime—adopting best practices from around the world is crucial.
It also suggests AI businesses to establish transparency in its practices, abide by environmental laws and work closely with the government. The firm encourages businesses to participate in carbon trading, use green AI/ML architectures and adopt energy efficient algorithms.
Regardless of national efforts, the Sustainability of technology depends on political and economic decision-making at the international level, thus Donthi suggests strict action can be taken only if international consensus on this topic is determined.
Published on June 6, 2025