UN chief ups climate pitch, targets fossil fuels and AI

NEW DELHI: As the mercury threatened to break records in London, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made a powerful pitch for stepping up efforts to tackle climate change at London Climate Action Week. Stressing the need to move away from a fossil fuel-dependent energy system, the UN chief reiterated the critical importance of ensuring that the transition is just, orderly and fair, with greater accountability. "The greatest threat is not the transition itself - but the failure to manage it. That is the risk we face today." Beyond the now familiar call on developed countries to fulfil their obligations of providing finance to developing nations, and for major economies and the G20 to do more to "overachieve" their commitments, the UN chief turned the spotlight on AI.

Acknowledging that temperature increases will breach the 1.5C guardrail, Guterres focused on the need to take measures to ensure that the rise is brought below 1.5C. The UN chief announced his plan for a Global Call for Methane Action, spotlighting three sectors-waste, agriculture and fossil fuels, singling out the last for "special focus". Guterres said this sector remains the "root cause" of the climate and energy crisis the world is experiencing.

Many developing countries have been reticent about a separate push on methane given its connection to agriculture and livestock. Guterres was clear that the "most immediate gains" can be made in coal, oil and gas. "Yet in 2025 alone, some 167 billion cubic metres of gas were flared into the sky-as much as Africa consumes in a year." The UN chief urged the fossil fuel industry to step up and "do what is long overdue".


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Guterres called for harnessing the potential of AI, arguing that it can accelerate climate solutions. At the same time, he stressed AI's "hunger for land, power and water".

"The data centres behind it already consume more electricity than most nations. 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." Underscoring the need for greater accountability, the UN chief proposed the AI Environmental Transparency Initiative. "I am calling on every major AI company to measure and publicly disclose the full environmental impact of its systems-carbon, water and land footprints-and to commit to powering every data centre with renewable energy by 2030."

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Guterres' latest call to action at London Climate Action Week comes in the context of a warning of more extreme weather by the World Meteorological Organization and the energy crisis arising from the war in Iran. "A tale of two crises," said the UN chief, "a climate crisis pushing us deeper towards higher temperatures and closer to catastrophic tipping points, and an energy crisis exposing the folly of a world hooked on hydrocarbons."