Environmental risk

"In 1974, [134] proposed that stratospheric ozone might be destroyed by industrially produced substances including chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) which are commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners. This ozone depletion is believed to have led to an increase in global skin cancer prevalence through overexposure to the sun, posing a significant world-wide health burden [135]. To manage this externality, the Montreal Protocol, a global agreement to phase out chemicals that led to the ozone depletion, was eventually signed in 1987 and entered into force in 1989 [136]. Prior to the Montreal Protocol, the use of CFC-based household appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners inadvertently led to the destruction of the environment, adversely impacting people who were not directly part of the value chain of these appliances. Similarly, there is a risk of externalities from AI posing environmental harms. It is reported that the combined footprint of the leading 200 digital companies represents 0.8% of all global energy-related emissions, with a significant proportion of it coming from data centres that power AI [137]."