The Missing Climate Dimension in the EU AI Act: Parsing the World’s First Comprehensive AI Regulation Through the Lens of the European Green Deal

Abstract

The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) marks the first attempt by a major global jurisdiction to establish a harmonised legal framework for artificial intelligence. While commendable in its emphasis on fundamental rights and technological safety, the AI Act is strikingly silent on the climate action. The article interrogates this lacuna in the light of the European Green Deal and the objective of the Union policy to combat climate change enshrined in Article 191(1) TFEU. Through doctrinal analysis of the AI Act’s risk-based structure, conformity assessment regime and delegated governance procedures, the article argues that the absence of climate safeguards represents a failure of policy coherence. It critiques the AI Act’s inability to classify climate-relevant AI systems as high-risk, its neglect of energy and emissions transparency and its omission of climate due diligence in regulatory sandboxes. Drawing on both legal doctrine and comparative insights, the article proposes regulatory reforms to embed climate-conscious obligations into AI governance, thus realigning the AI Act with the Union’s binding climate commitments and broader constitutional identity as a normative green power.