Environmental Security Weekly Watch: May 11-15, 2026

A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

AI Energy Demand Outpaces Its Climate Solutions (Eco-Business)

A new International Energy Agency report finds that AI’s significant promise in improving energy efficiency and grid reliability may not match the energy sector’s inability to keep pace with the explosive growth of AI’s physical infrastructure. Electricity demand from data centers surged 50% in 2025 alone, and the IEA projects that global demand will nearly double from 485 TWh in 2025 to 950 TWh by 2030. And while capital expenditure by the world’s five largest tech firms now exceeds total global investment in oil and gas production. barriers including a lack of digital skills, fragmented data systems, and weak policy support are holding back broader AI adoption within the energy sector.

Even present demand is enormous. More energy-intensive AI applications (video generation, advanced reasoning, and autonomous agents) consume hundreds to thousands of times more electricity per query than chatbot interactions. The IEA estimates that a meaningful intervention on adoption barriers might save more than 13 exajoules of energy consumed by existing AI applications by 2035, which totals roughly 3% of global energy consumption. Without adoption, however, data center emissions are projected to double to 350 million tons by 2035.

READ | America’s AI Gamble: How Big Tech is Trading Climate for Hype

Dollarization Deals a Blow to the Somali Shilling—and Those Who Rely on It (The Guardian)

A grassroots rejection of the Somali shilling by traders, bus operators, and businesses in Mogadishu last month sent shockwaves through the economy. It also inflated the cost of essential products, including food, medicine, and transport. The nation’s shift toward dollarization is accelerating now due to two factors: mobile money transfers driven by diaspora remittances, and the heavy presence of international organizations. Increasingly, Somali farmers also will not accept payment in shillings for agricultural goods.

Yet as shillings plummet in value and dollarization accelerates, it is the poorest Somalis who have been hurt most amidst the nation’s already dire humanitarian situation. Enduring drought has caused widespread crop failures, increased food prices, and severely disrupted livelihoods. The World Food Programme estimates that a third of the country’s population of 6.5 million people faces severe hunger, while two million children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition. Many observers believe that an announcement by Somalia’s federal government that rejection of the Somali shilling constitutes a crime will be ineffective due to its inability to enforce the ruling.

READ | Long Term Climate Resilience: A Pathway to Stabilize Somalia

Invasive Plant Species Threatens Vital Colombian Wetland (AP News)

Over the past year a fast-spreading invasive aquatic plant, Hydrilla verticillata, has blanketed large portions of Colombia’s Cienega Grande de Santa Marta—a UNESCO biosphere reserve and one of the country’s most vital fishing ecosystems. Dense mats of vegetation now choke fishing routes, block access to drinking water, and tangle nets, all of which have caused fish catch to fall sharply in the stilt communities of Nueva Venecia and Buenavista.

Roughly 6,500 people depend almost entirely on the lagoon here, and residents have resorted to hand-cutting narrow passages through the plant matter every few days to allow canoes to pass. Yet more effective solutions are in short supply. Experts note that nutrient pollution carried by the Magdalena River and shifting freshwater-saltwater balances in the wetland are create conditions conducive to the explosive growth of this invasive plant. Indeed, any attempts at removal risk spreading its progress further. Communities have staged protests over what they describe as a slow and insufficient government response to the crisis, and some residents even say they face the prospect of mass displacement for the first time in generations.

READ | A Tale of Two Snails: Biodiversity Threats of Invasive Species in the United States and China