A lion for sustainable AI: How to support a new standard for sustainability reporting?

The sustainability of AI is an issue on the rise for research and the political community investing in AI. However, existing research does not yet show a realistic picture if the different steps in an AI life cycle impact energy consumption and CO2 emissions, and if so how much. What is missing is proper documentation and a standard which provides a basis for comparison and long term research. One step towards a better standard of documentation in this and many other corporate sectors might be a new directive by the EU (CSRD). It requires around additional 2000 big or capital-oriented companies to report on their corporate sustainability. But what kind of reporting animal is the CSRD going to be: a toothless paper tiger or a sharp and hungry lion?