Attacking developed countries for imposing a carbon tax at the border on imports from developing nations, the Economic Survey, which was tabled in Parliament on Monday, said this is happening even as the latter is ramping up energy demand due to its “obsession” with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“Not only have development goals been downgraded in the process of elevation of containing global emissions to the pinnacle of all economic policies, but developing nations are also being threatened with a carbon tax at the border, in full negation of the spirit of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective national capabilities that was supposed to have undergirded the Paris Agreement,” the Economic Survey for FY24 said. It would be a comedy if it were not real and tragic, it added.

“Even as developed nations prepare to impose a carbon tax at the border on imports coming into their countries laden with carbon, they are ramping up energy demand like never before, thanks to their obsession with letting AI guide, take over and dominate natural intelligence,” the survey said.

For instance, it said that one of the leading global technology companies promised to achieve Net Zero by 2030 at the turn of the decade. But, the race to dominate the emerging technology of AI has caused its emissions to be higher by 30 per cent by 2023.

Spike in power demand

In a research report published in April, analysts in Goldman Sachs wrote that the demand for power in the US would experience a growth not seen in a generation, thanks to AI and that “transmission, one of the major bottlenecks for clean energy transition, and the addition of data centres and AI could exacerbate this”.

“However, these developments should convince any reasonable reader that the developed world has not only tied itself into knots but is also contributing — wittingly or otherwise — to deepening and entrenching poverty and inequality in developing countries and consigning them (developing countries) to perpetual underdeveloped status by coercing them into prioritising emissions over their economies,” the survey rued.

Developed countries, having relied on a fossil fuel-based growth strategy for the past two centuries to reach where they are today, seek ambitious cuts in emissions from developing countries, pushing them to adopt policy measures, instruments and production and energy systems that are distinctly different from the carbon-emitting traditional strategies that fuelled the growth of the former.

The fact that these novel pathways are untested is apparent from the recent deliberations of the G7 countries on ending the use of unabated coal power plants only in the first half of 2030, even when their carbon emissions peaked several decades ago.

“Japan and Germany did not agree to this. In contrast, Germany has written into its legislation a final target to shut coal plants by 2038, while Japan has yet to set a date. This is a recipe for intra and international conflicts,” it added.