AI’s dual promise: Enabling positive climate outcomes and powering the energy transition

BRAZIL: As delegates gather for COP30 in Brazil, KPMG International has published the findings of a major survey that reveals overwhelming support from business leaders for AI as a tool to accelerate, rather than hinder, climate progress.

More than 1,200 senior executives from major companies spanning a variety of industries across 20 countries were surveyed for KPMG’s report, AI’s dual promise: Enabling positive climate outcomes and powering the energy transition. The research was conducted to better understand how AI is currently being used to drive sustainability and where business leaders believe action is needed to accelerate and unlock its full potential. 

While AI was debated on the sidelines of COP29 this year, it’s set to be among the most discussed themes as the world’s decision makers attempt to balance the potential impact of energy consumption with the technology’s potential to transform clean energy.

Forecasts vary significantly, but some campaigners have called for a moratorium on new AI data center builds, warning they could significantly increase global emissions by 2030, slowing or even reversing current progress on climate change. The challenge for political and business leaders is understanding AI’s increasing need for energy resources while balancing this with the huge potential the technology has to rapidly speed up progress on clean energy and decarbonization.

KPMG’s survey provides some of the clearest evidence yet that senior executives now understand and are embracing AI as a potential force for good. Ninety-seven percent of respondents said they believe AI is a net positive for accelerating progress towards net zero goals.

The execution gap: why energy’s progress is uneven

Despite strong confidence in AI’s potential, KPMG’s findings highlight that progress remains uneven due to barriers in infrastructure, policy, and financing. One-third of executives (33 percent) identify grid limitations as a major risk, with permitting and construction delays threatening to meet only half of the new AI-driven energy demand by 2030. Policy is also lagging behind innovation: 75 percent of leaders say policymakers are too slow to embrace AI’s climate benefits, creating uncertainty and delaying investment. Financing is another challenge, with 37 percent of energy producers and 33 percent of energy consumers citing high costs and lack of funding as the main obstacles to expanding clean energy. 

While 96 percent of executives believe renewables can meet future AI demand, only 13 percent are willing to make clean power use non-negotiable if it slows deployment or raises costs. As a result, data center expansion is likely to continue globally even without guaranteed access to clean power. Companies that overcome these hurdles by 2027 will secure a lasting competitive advantage.

Turning AI ambition into climate action

KPMG’s survey reveals a clear commitment to both AI and the climate challenge from energy business leaders. With COP30 now underway in Belem, much of the conversation will focus on 2030 and the rapidly approaching deadline for net-zero goals. The summit is a pivotal moment for embracing and exploiting AI to help meet the challenge.

Mike Hayes, Global Head of Renewable Energy, KPMG International and Partner, Climate Change and Decarbonization Leader, KPMG in Ireland, said:

Anish De, Global Head of Energy, Natural Resources, and Chemicals at KPMG International, said, 

Anna Scally, Head of Technology, Media, and Telecommunications, KPMG EMA; Partner, KPMG in Ireland, said, 

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BELEM, BRAZIL: Multilateral development banks (MDBs) reaffirmed today at COP30 their commitment to respond to their clients’ priorities to improve livelihoods and create jobs for the resilience of communities and businesses in the face of intensified climate shocks and ecosystem degradation.

Working together as a system, they call for resilient, economically sound development that is rooted in trust and built to last, focusing on stable institutions, reliable infrastructure, employment opportunities, adaptation to the impacts of climate shocks, and the capacity to grow within each country’s context. Their efforts to better support clients include:

• Improving the risk profile of investments and attracting more money by finding new ways to involve the private sector.
• Strengthening how results are measured to better capture and track the impact of their investments.
• Harmonising their work to simplify financing processes and deliver greater adaptation and mitigation impact
• Advancing the implementation of the Joint MDB Long-Term Strategy Programme to support clients with climate planning and the design and implementation of country-led, country-driven platforms.

Gianpiero Nacci, Managing Director for Climate Strategy and Delivery at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said: “As MDBs, we are united in driving economic growth while strengthening climate resilience. The green transition is now a business imperative for competitiveness, with clear market signals from governments, investors, and businesses showing strong demand for climate finance.”

Delivering at scale

In 2024, MDBs provided US$137 billion (€118 billion) in climate finance for adaptation and mitigation and mobilised an additional US$134 billion from private capital. Of these amounts, US$85 billion and $33 billion were directed to low- and middle-income economies respectively, putting MDBs on track to reach US$120 billion from their own accounts and US$65 billion in private-capital mobilisation by 2030.

Accelerating action for adaptation and resilience

Since 2019, MDBs have doubled their support for adaptation and resilience, delivering over US$26 billion to low- and middle-income economies in 2024 alone. Based on this experience – not only financing programmes and policies, but also linking finance with policy dialogue, strategic planning and institutional capacity-building – they launched at COP30 the technical paper From Innovation to Impact: Building Resilience for People and Planet, a new report that showcases more than 100 best practices for delivering resilience, including several pioneering instruments that are expanding resources, mobilising private capital and strengthening systemic resilience.

Enhancing action on nature

The MDBs are supporting clients to scale up investments that actively protect, restore, or enhance nature while generating an economic return by improving metrics, methodologies, and the design of financial products. In Belém, they will launch a new framework for nature financing that includes the Common Principles for Tracking Nature Finance and A Practitioner’s Guide to Results Metrics Selection, both designed to support the development of high-quality financial products and attract greater private capital for nature.

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