  Current proposals for AI regulation, in the EU and beyond, aim to spur AI
that is trustworthy (e.g., AI Act) and accountable (e.g., AI Liability) What is
missing, however, is a robust regulatory discourse and roadmap to make AI, and
technology more broadly, environmentally sustainable. This paper aims to take
first steps to fill this gap. The ICT sector contributes up to 3.9 percent of
global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions-more than global air travel at 2.5
percent. The carbon footprint and water consumption of AI, especially
large-scale generative models like GPT-4, raise significant sustainability
concerns. The paper is the first to assess how current and proposed technology
regulations, including EU environmental law, the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR), and the AI Act, could be adjusted to better account for
environmental sustainability. The GDPR, for instance, could be interpreted to
limit certain individual rights like the right to erasure if these rights
significantly conflict with broader sustainability goals. In a second step, the
paper suggests a multi-faceted approach to achieve sustainable AI regulation.
It advocates for transparency mechanisms, such as disclosing the GHG footprint
of AI systems, as laid out in the proposed EU AI Act. However, sustainable AI
regulation must go beyond mere transparency. The paper proposes a regulatory
toolkit comprising co-regulation, sustainability-by-design principles,
restrictions on training data, and consumption caps, including integration into
the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. Finally, the paper argues that this regulatory
toolkit could serve as a blueprint for regulating other high-emission
technologies and infrastructures like blockchain, Metaverse applications, and
data centers. The framework aims to cohesively address the crucial dual
challenges of our era: digital transformation and climate change mitigation.
