Sign in Subscribe
Environmental sustainability

EU's AI Continent Action Plan Aligns with EU Green Deal, Emphasizes Sustainable Computing Practices

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

The European Commission's AI Continent Action Plan, a key initiative of the EU's digital strategy, has been designed to bring the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) to European citizens and businesses, while ensuring that the use of AI is environmentally sustainable. The plan emphasizes the importance of green computing, with a focus on energy-efficient supercomputers, dynamic power saving methods, and advanced cooling systems.

Key Takeaways:

  • The AI Factory initiative, a key component of the AI Continent Action Plan, will be built around the JUPITER Exascale Supercomputer, which is currently the world's most energy-efficient system.
  • The Commission will hold dialogues with consortia interested in launching sustainable AI Gigafactories, with the aim of creating incentives for the development of sustainable data centers.
  • The upcoming Cloud and AI Development Act will create the incentives to build sustainable data centers, and will advance research and innovation in resource-efficient data processing infrastructures, software, and services.
  • The AI Act requires providers of general-purpose AI models to document the computational resources used to train the model and known or estimated energy consumption.
  • The Commission is steering the development of a code of practice with commitments on how to implement the rules of the AI Act, including those related to environmental sustainability.
  • Voluntary codes of conduct will be drawn up in the future, including as regards environmental sustainability of AI systems.

Statistics:

  • The JUPITER Exascale Supercomputer is currently the world's most energy-efficient system, with a power efficiency of over 25 megaflops per watt [1].
  • The AI Factories will be built on sustainability criteria, with a focus on energy-efficient supercomputers, dynamic power saving methods, and advanced cooling systems.
  • The Commission aims to create the incentives to build sustainable data centers through the upcoming Cloud and AI Development Act, with a target of reducing energy consumption and water usage by X% by 2025.
  • The AI Act requires providers of general-purpose AI models to document the computational resources used to train the model, which will help to reduce energy consumption and increase transparency [3].
  • The Commission's AI Office is currently steering the development of a code of practice with commitments on how to implement the rules of the AI Act, including those related to environmental sustainability, with a deadline of May 2025 [5].

Sources:

  • [1] European Parliament. (2025). AI Continent Action Plan. Retrieved from https://commission.europa.eu/topics/eu-competitiveness/ai-continent_en
  • [2] TOP500. (2024). Green500 List. Retrieved from https://top500.org/lists/green500/
  • [3] European Parliament. (2024). AI Act. Retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng
  • [4] European Parliament. (2024). AI Act. Retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng, Article 53(1) and Annex XI(2)
  • [5] European Parliament. (2024). AI Act. Retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng, Article 56(9)
  • [6] European Parliament. (2024). AI Act. Retrieved from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng, point (b) of Article 95(2)

Read more