UN Secretary-General António Guterres has insisted it is time for AI to "come clean" about its environmental footprint from data centres, among other ambitious measures.

Making an impassioned appeal for more ambitious global action on climate change at London Climate Action Week, the UN chief called on AI firms to disclose the full environmental impact of data centres in terms their carbon, water and land footprints.

The Secretary-General also highlighted how the world’s dependence on oil is driving both the climate crisis and an energy sovereignty crunch, the latter linked to massive shipping disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and the war involving Iran, Israel and the US. In a call for political leadership to push through global change akin to that required to phase out leaded gasoline and to ban chemicals that created a hole in the ozone layer, he said: “These crises may seem separate but they share the same destructive origin: fossil fuels. And they 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 good news,” Guterres continued, “is, unlike every past energy crisis, we now have a clear way out, a clean way out.”

He noted that since 2010, the cost of solar energy has plummeted by almost 90 per cent, onshore wind by more than 70 per cent, and battery storage by 95 per cent.

Renewables had avoided more than the annual carbon dioxide emissions of the US, the EU and Japan combined, Mr. Guterres said, adding that clean energy investment now attracts almost twice as much as fossil fuels. “There are no embargoes on sunlight and no blockades on the wind,” he said.

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