UN chief demands AI firms disclose environmental costs as data centers threaten climate goals

UN chief calls on AI firms to come clean on environmental costs

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations called on major artificial intelligence companies on Tuesday to publicly disclose the full environmental cost of their data centres and use renewable power, as he launched a transparency initiative for the sector. The rapid development of data centres globally to fuel the AI revolution has drawn scrutiny from environmental groups for their high energy and water use and lack of transparency. "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," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said at an address during London Climate Action Week. He called on 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 as he launched the U.N.'s AI Environmental Transparency Initiative. "If AI is to help build a better future, it must be honest about what it costs us now," he said. AI firms are currently relying on voluntary net-zero ⁠commitments and renewable electricity targets to decarbonise their operations while many are also turning to gas or touting nuclear as a power source for new projects. Guterres said the world remains off track to meet global climate goals and criticised voices calling for more fossil use. He said deploying more renewable power projects and using those to electrify ⁠transport, buildings and industry is among the fastest ways to cut emissions and break reliance on imported fossil fuels. CALL TO ACTION ON METHANE Guterres also launched a call to action on methane emissions, which included asking fossil fuel companies ⁠to fix leaks, stop routine flaring and adopt a science-based global standard. "I am urging the fossil fuel industry to step up and do what is long overdue," he said, adding that methane is a ⁠potent greenhouse gas and is responsible for around one-third of current global warming. Guterres also announced he would convene world leaders in September ahead of the U.N. Climate Conference, COP31, in Turkey, to help drive forward a "just transition" away from fossil fuels. Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Disrupted * Sustainable Markets * Water Management * Climate Change * Climate Solutions Susanna Twidale Thomson Reuters Susanna Twidale covers gas, power, renewables, carbon and nuclear in the London office with a focus on the EU and UK and has over 20 years journalism experience. She was part of a team awarded "Reuters Journalist of the Year" in 2022 for the coverage of the European Energy Crisis.

AI companies should release environmental impact, commit to clean energy, says UN chief

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday called on artificial intelligence companies to release information about the carbon pollution they create, along with the water and land used to power their operations. While urging action in an address at London Climate Action Week, Guterres proposed the AI Environmental Transparency Initiative, arguing AI companies should measure and disclose the impact of their increasingly in-demand technology -- impact which has been cited by opponents as reasons to curb the rapid growth of data centers. These companies have faced mounting pressure, both from governments and locally in areas with data centers that support AI, for increased transparency and more standardized reporting across the industry. Guterres said AI companies should also commit to powering their facilities with electricity produced with renewable technologies, such as wind and solar, by 2030. "No more hidden costs," Guterres said at Europe's largest independent climate conference. "No more shifting the burden onto those least able to bear it. It is time to come clean." AI's needs are growing Many major tech companies have vowed to power their operations using cleaner sources, some by the end of the decade. Some plan to do so especially using solar and nuclear, including tech giants Amazon and Google. But the race to deploy AI has complicated those commitments and sent soaring greenhouse gas emissions, which come from the burning of fuels like oil, coal and gas, and heat the planet. Regulatory barriers have also hindered climate-friendly projects. Currently, coal sources about 30% of the electricity consumed by data centers globally, according to the International Energy Agency. Renewable energy - primarily wind, solar and hydro powers - supplies about 27%, natural gas, 26%, and nuclear, 15%. Renewables are expected to meet just half of that demand over the next five years. As AI booms, many, including Guterres, have touted its ability to accelerate climate solutions. It could improve energy efficiency, and reduce pollution and emissions. At the same time, the environmental footprint of data centers already rivals some of the world's largest countries, according to a U.N. report released earlier this month. That report also said the water, energy use and pollution associated with AI will double in just four years. Data centers needed to fuel AI accounted for about 1.5% of the world's electricity consumption in 2025, and will account for nearly 3% of the world's projected electricity use by 2030. "Despite these obvious concerns, communities are often left in the dark about the environmental impact of the infrastructure rising around them," Guterres said in his remarks. The UN continues to sound urgent alarms The U.N. chief has long urged the world to take serious climate action, and will once again convene leaders at the annual Conference of Parties, this year in Turkey, to negotiate plans. On Tuesday, addressing AI was just a number of steps he said needed to be taken to keep the world below the warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times, a goal set during the 2015 Paris Agreement. Last year was the first time that the three-year temperature average broke through that threshold. "Every major emitter must accelerate action," Guterres said. "And every country must over-deliver on its commitments." He called for cutting methane, a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for around one-third of global warming and significantly more potent than carbon dioxide, though comparatively it lingers for less time in the atmosphere. He also called for a reduction in dependence on coal, oil and gas. Renewables progress seen around th e globe but challenges remain Guterres noted in his remarks positive developments in renewable energy, as scale drives down the costs of the technologies and adoption increases. Clean power generation -- largely driven by solar and wind -- exceeded overall global electricity demand growth last year. The share of renewables also hit more than one-third of the world's electricity mix for the first time in modern history in 2025, and coal power saw its share fall below one-third of global generation. China continues to drive the world's clean energy transition, and in Europe, fossil generation is generally trending down. But the U.S. under President Donald Trump has embraced coal, oil and gas and slashed support for renewables and broader climate action -- all amid the global energy crisis exacerbated by the U.S. war in Iran, which Guterres called "the mother of all energy shocks." Guterres referred to the current state of the world as "A Tale of Two Crises," drawing a metaphor to the Charles Dickens' novel, "A Tale of Two Cities" -- also a nod to London where the address was given. "For the climate agenda, this is indeed the best of times and the worst of times," he said. "The worst - because climate impacts are intensifying, tipping points are looming, and the energy crisis has exposed the deep risks of dependence on fossil fuels. But also the best - because the renewables revolution is well underway." ___ Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at [email protected]. ___ Read more of AP's climate coverage. ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

UN urges AI firms to come clean on their environmental costs

A new United Nations report puts hard numbers on the carbon, water and land that artificial intelligence is starting to consume, and asks who pays. The United Nations wants artificial-intelligence companies to stop treating the environmental bill as somebody else's problem. In a call amplified this week by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the organisation is pressing the firms behind the AI boom to disclose the carbon, water, and land their systems consume, and to switch their data centres and supply chains to clean power before the costs land on the communities least able to absorb them. The disclosure demand rests on a fresh evidence base. A June 2026 report from the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) warns that AI's environmental footprint is expanding rapidly across all three dimensions, and calls for urgent action to keep the technology inside what it terms planetary limits. The report reframes a debate that has largely fixated on electricity as one about water and land as well. The headline number is the power. Data centres are projected to draw about 945 terawatt-hours of electricity a year by 2030, the report estimates, a figure it sets against the combined annual electricity use of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria, three countries whose populations together exceed half a billion people. The AI estate, on that trajectory, would consume nearly triple what those three nations use put together. Water is the quieter cost. Cooling the servers and generating the power to run them gives AI what the authors call a water footprint, and they project that AI-related water consumption could match the basic annual domestic water needs of 1.3 billion people by the decade's end. The land footprint, tied mostly to the space and infrastructure that power generation requires, is the third leg the report adds to a picture usually drawn with one. None of this is presented as a reason to abandon AI, but as a reason to build it differently. The report sets out a framework for what it calls a responsible AI ecosystem, resting on transparency, efficiency by design, equity, lifecycle responsibility, global cooperation, and sustainable use. The first of those, transparency, is the one Guterres has seized on, because almost everything else depends on companies first being honest about what their systems actually consume. That honesty is currently in short supply, which is part of the point. Operators rarely publish granular figures for the water a given data centre draws or the emissions tied to a particular model, leaving researchers to estimate. The push for disclosure is, in effect, an attempt to convert a field of educated guesses into something regulators and the public can actually audit. The UN's own framing stresses that the costs must not be quietly shifted onto vulnerable communities, the places where cheap land and lax oversight tend to draw data centres in the first place. The warning lands amid a building of AI infrastructure already running at extraordinary scale. US utilities are bracing for a $1.4tn capital surge to feed the data centres planned by 2030, and projects such as Meta's gas-powered Hyperion campus in Louisiana show how readily the grid's shortfalls are being met with fossil fuels rather than the clean power the UN is asking for. Regulators have begun to respond, with the EU telling Big Tech to align its data centres with climate goals and a wave of startups chasing ways to curb their energy use. The report stops short of prescribing hard caps or naming companies, leaving the harder politics of enforcement to governments. Its contribution is the framework and the figures, a way of measuring an industry that has grown faster than the tools to track it. The UNU-INWEH report, available in full from the institute, gives those efforts a common yardstick. What it cannot supply is the disclosure itself, which remains, for now, in the gift of the companies.

UN chief urges AI firms to 'come clean' over environmental footprint

Paris (France) (AFP) - UN chief Antonio Guterres called Tuesday for faster action on global warming, challenging AI firms to "come clean" about their environmental footprint and warning that fossil fuels were driving climate and energy crises. As Europe bakes under a second heatwave in as many months, Guterres delivered a speech in London that painted a stark picture of a planet that has just endured its 11 hottest years on record. "Climate chaos is accelerating before our eyes," Guterres said, while the energy crisis, fuelled by war in the Middle East, is "exposing the folly of a world hooked on hydrocarbons". "It is clear that our world is facing a Tale of Two Crises," Guterres said. "On the surface, these crises may seem separate. But they share the same destructive origin: Fossil fuels," he said at London Climate Action Week, an annual gathering of policymakers, company executives and NGOs. Guterres announced new initiatives to combat methane emissions and address concerns over the environmental footprint of energy-hungry data centres. The growing energy and water use of data centres -- vast server warehouses powering AI and other digital services -- is putting pressure on local communities and the environment. A UN study earlier this month found that the facilities consumed more electricity than all but 10 countries in 2025. By 2030, they could use more power than all but five countries, the study found. Guterres launched an AI Environmental Transparency Initiative, urging every major artificial intelligence company to measure and publicly disclose their environmental impact as well as commit to powering every data centre with renewable energy by 2030. "It is time to come clean," Guterres said. "If AI is to help build a better future, it must be honest about what it costs us now." 'Far greater urgency' Guterres warned that the world was "dangerously" off track in efforts to reach the global goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050, saying there was a "clean way out" by accelerating the transition to renewable energy. Countries agreed to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5C above preindustrial levels under the 2015 Paris Agreement, but scientists now say that threshold could be breached by about 2030. "We must act with far greater urgency to strictly limit the magnitude and duration of any overshoot beyond 1.5C," Guterres said. Rising temperatures are pushing the world closer to "catastrophic tipping points", he said. The United Nations Scientific Advisory Board released a report outlining the dangers of crossing irreversible tipping points, from ice melt that would further raise sea levels to the collapse of coral reefs and Amazon decline. The UN chief's warning came as Europe's latest heatwave brought record temperatures in France and seared other European countries this week. 'Best and worst of times' Guterres called for a rapid cut in CO2 emissions from oil, gas and coal -- the main driver of long-term warming, which remains in the atmosphere for centuries. He also called for renewed efforts to reduce methane emissions, which account for one-third of warming and are about 80 times more potent than CO2 but break down in the atmosphere in a decade or two. Guterres said the agriculture and waste sectors must take steps to curb their methane output but he put a "special focus" on the fossil fuel industry to "do what is long overdue". Around 70 percent of oil and gas methane emissions can be eliminated with existing technology, but some 167 billion cubic metres of gas were flared in 2025 alone, as much as Africa consumes in a year, he said. He called on governments to set a "new global standard" for the oil and gas sector that would lead to "near-zero" methane emissions.

UN Chief Calls on AI Firms to Come Clean on Environmental Costs

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations ⁠called ⁠on major artificial intelligence companies ⁠on Tuesday to publicly disclose the full environmental cost of their data centres and use renewable power, as he launched a transparency initiative for the sector. The rapid development of data centres globally to fuel the AI revolution has drawn scrutiny from environmental groups for their high energy and ⁠water use ⁠and lack of transparency. "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," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said at an address during London Climate Action Week. He called on 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 as he launched the U.N.'s AI Environmental Transparency Initiative. "If AI is ⁠to help build a better future, it must be honest about what it costs us now," he said. AI firms are currently relying on voluntary net-zero commitments and renewable electricity targets to decarbonise their operations while many are also turning to gas or touting nuclear as a power ⁠source for new projects. Guterres said the world remains off track to meet global ⁠climate goals and criticised voices calling for more fossil use. He said deploying more renewable power projects and using those to electrify transport, buildings and industry is among the fastest ways to cut emissions and break reliance on imported fossil fuels. CALL TO ACTION ON METHANE Guterres also launched a call to action on methane emissions, which included asking fossil fuel companies to fix leaks, stop routine flaring and adopt a science-based global standard. "I am urging the fossil fuel industry to step up and ⁠do what is long overdue," he said, adding that methane is a potent greenhouse gas and is responsible for around one-third of current global warming. Guterres also announced he would convene world leaders in September ahead of the U.N. Climate Conference, COP31, in Turkey, to help drive forward a "just transition" away from fossil fuels. (Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

UN chief calls on AI firms to come clean on environmental costs

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations called on major artificial intelligence companies on Tuesday to publicly disclose the full environmental cost of their data centres and use renewable power, as he launched a transparency initiative for the sector. The rapid development of data centres globally to fuel the AI revolution has drawn scrutiny from environmental groups for their high energy and water use and lack of transparency. "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," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said at an address during London Climate Action Week. He called on 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 as he launched the U.N.'s AI Environmental Transparency Initiative. "If AI is to help build a better future, it must be honest about what it costs us now," he said. AI firms are currently relying on voluntary net-zero commitments and renewable electricity targets to decarbonise their operations while many are also turning to gas or touting nuclear as a power source for new projects. Guterres said the world remains off track to meet global climate goals and criticised voices calling for more fossil use. He said deploying more renewable power projects and using those to electrify transport, buildings and industry is among the fastest ways to cut emissions and break reliance on imported fossil fuels. CALL TO ACTION ON METHANE Guterres also launched a call to action on methane emissions, which included asking fossil fuel companies to fix leaks, stop routine flaring and adopt a science-based global standard. "I am urging the fossil fuel industry to step up and do what is long overdue," he said, adding that methane is a potent greenhouse gas and is responsible for around one-third of current global warming. Guterres also announced he would convene world leaders in September ahead of the U.N. Climate Conference, COP31, in Turkey, to help drive forward a "just transition" away from fossil fuels. (Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)