Green AI: Powering Sustainable Finance In The UAE And Region

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is undergoing rapid development, leading to a profound and expanding technological impact. The global AI market is projected to surge from $189 billion in 2023 to $4.8 trillion by 2033 – a 25-fold increase in just a decade. AI's contribution to economic growth is estimated to be phenomenal, the GCC is expected to account for $260 billion or 80 per cent of the Middle East's GDP by 2030, with the UAE claiming a large share - about 13.6 per cent of its GDP.

Sure enough, funding towards AI is tangible in these countries, with governments making strategic roadmaps and infrastructure investments to build their own AI ecosystems. The UAE leads with 35 data centres, one of these data centres is set to be the largest in the world outside of the US. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launched its National Data Centre Strategy intended to position the Kingdom as a regional leader in cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Meanwhile Oman and Kuwait are entering into partnerships with Microsoft and Google Cloud to expand their digital infrastructure.

The burgeoning field of AI holds promise for sustainable finance, yet its own environmental footprint, particularly in terms of energy consumption, cannot be overlooked. This is where the concept of 'Green AI' emerges as a critical differentiator – an approach to developing and deploying AI systems with environmental sustainability as a core design principle. Data centres can be water and energy intensive, therefore investing in sustainability when designing the data centre is crucial for scaling AI.

Recognising the need for this transition, the UAE has launched several innovative initiatives including Huawei Digital Power's solar-backed data centres powered by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, Emirates Global Aluminium's 100 per cent renewable-powered industrial data centres, Emirates NBD's solar-powered data centres and Masdar's collaboration with Khazna Data Centres on solar power projects.

Green AI encompasses several key facets. Firstly, a critical application of Green AI in sustainable finance lies in its ability to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, extending to the core of sustainable financing. By re-evaluating and reporting carbon footprints and other environmental impact, green AI reinforces sustainable investment decisions particularly for energy-intensive infrastructure such as data centres. For instance, closed loop or immersion cooling systems, energy-efficient servers, processors and storage devices, and data centre virtualisation technologies reduce energy consumption in a big way.

Making an accurate analysis of an organisation's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance has always been a labour-intensive effort due to the extensive data entries and broader estimates. This analysis benefits from the precision provided by AI, which can process copious amounts of data, from different sources such as satellite images, social media and documents, to create an exhaustive report while incorporating a predictive analysis. This underpins transparency and accuracy, which are crucial in the banking industry.

Furthermore, these AI-driven systems are increasingly facilitating the allocation of investor capital towards companies and projects that directly support climate mitigation goals, by pinpointing organisations with effective carbon reduction strategies and clean energy initiatives.

Secondly, green AI involves using AI models for energy efficiency. This means developing leaner algorithms, utilising more efficient hardware and employing techniques to achieve powerful analytical capabilities with a significantly smaller energy footprint.

In essence, Green AI is not just as a technological advancement but signals a fundamental shift in how financial institutions approach sustainability. It is about ensuring that the very tools we use to build a sustainable future are themselves sustainable. By prioritising energy efficiency, optimising renewable energy integration for critical infrastructure such as data centres, and applying these principles across all facets of sustainable financing and immersive technologies, Green AI promises to unlock a truly responsible and impactful financial ecosystem. The future of sustainable finance is inextricably linked to the future of Green AI.

The writer is Chief Sustainability Officer and Group Head of ESG at Emirates NBD

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