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UN targets AI footprint
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on major artificial intelligence companies to publicly disclose the full environmental cost of their data centres and use renewable power as he launched the UN’s AI Environmental Transparency Initiative at London Climate Action Week.
“By 2030, they could use more power than all but five countries”
Guterres said, “By 2030, they could use more power than all but five countries — and enough water to meet the basic needs of all 1.3 billion residents of sub‑Saharan Africa for an entire year,” linking the AI data-centre boom to scrutiny over energy and water use and lack of transparency.
He urged AI firms to measure and publicly disclose their water, carbon and land use impacts and commit to powering all data centres with renewable energy by 2030, while warning that “If AI is to help build a better future, it must be honest about what it costs us now.”
The UN chief also said AI firms are currently relying on voluntary net-zero commitments and renewable electricity targets to decarbonise their operations while “many are turning to gas or touting nuclear as a power source for new projects.”
Methane push and urgency
Alongside the AI transparency push, Guterres launched a call to action on methane emissions, asking fossil fuel companies to fix leaks, stop routine flaring, and adopt a science-based global standard.
He said, “I am urging the fossil fuel industry to step up and do what is long overdue,” adding that methane is “responsible for around one-third of current global warming.”
In Geneva, Dario Liguti, director of the Energy, Housing and Land Management Division at the UN Economic Commission for Europe, told reporters that “The majority” of methane reductions in the fossil fuel industry can be achieved at little or no cost.
Liguti said the UNECE has developed guidance tested by governments and industry to help reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sectors and in both operating and abandoned coal mines, and he stressed that implementation must be scaled up massively in top-emitting countries.
COP31 and a just transition
Guterres announced he would convene world leaders in September ahead of the UN Climate Conference, COP31, in Turkiye, to help drive a “just transition” away from fossil fuels.
“COP31, in Turkiye, to help drive a “just transition” away from fossil fuels”
In London, he warned that climate chaos is “accelerating before our eyes” and said the arrival of the El Nino warming weather phenomenon this summer risks “blowing the house down,” as he framed the climate and energy crises as sharing the same origin in fossil fuels.
He said the twin crises “demand the same answer” — a “fast, fair transition to clean energy and a surge in adaptation, resilience and climate justice for those already facing climate harm.”
The UN official also tied the methane and AI initiatives to near-term limits on warming, saying the world cannot double down on fossil fuels while scientists now say average annual temperatures will exceed the 1.5C threshold set under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
