Speaking at London Climate Action Week, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a blunt message to artificial intelligence companies: disclose the full environmental cost of your operations. He accused the sector of hiding behind a lack of standardised reporting, leaving communities in the dark about the water, land, and energy consumed by the data centres powering AI.
“No more hidden costs,” Guterres said at the conference, which gathers policymakers, executives, and NGOs from across Europe and beyond. “No more shifting the burden onto those least able to bear it. It is time to come clean.”
Data Centres: A Growing Drain on Resources
A UN study released earlier this month revealed that data centres consumed more electricity in 2025 than all but ten countries worldwide. By 2030, their energy use could surpass that of all but five nations. The same research projects that the water, energy, and pollution associated with AI will double within four years. Currently, data centres account for about 1.5 per cent of global electricity consumption; by 2030, that share could approach 3 per cent.
Guterres proposed the AI Environmental Transparency Initiative, calling on companies to measure and publicly report their carbon emissions, water usage, and land footprint. He also urged them to commit to powering their facilities entirely with renewable sources—such as wind and solar—by the end of the decade.
“Despite these obvious concerns, communities are often left in the dark about the environmental impact of the infrastructure rising around them,” he said, referencing the rapid expansion of server farms in regions from the Netherlands to Ireland, where local opposition has grown.
Fossil Fuels Still Dominate AI’s Energy Mix
According to the International Energy Agency, coal supplies roughly 30 per cent of the electricity used by data centres globally, followed by renewables (27 per cent), natural gas (26 per cent), and nuclear (15 per cent). Renewables are expected to meet only half of the projected demand growth over the next five years. Major tech firms like Amazon and Google have pledged to shift to cleaner sources, including solar and nuclear, but the race to deploy AI has complicated those commitments and driven up greenhouse gas emissions.
Guterres framed the twin crises of climate change and energy insecurity as two sides of the same coin. “On the surface, these crises may seem separate. But they share the same destructive origin: fossil fuels,” he said, drawing a parallel to Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The speech came as Europe endured its second heatwave in two months, with temperatures in cities like Paris, Madrid, and Berlin exceeding 40°C.
The UN chief also called for cuts in methane emissions—a potent greenhouse gas responsible for about one-third of global warming—and a reduction in dependence on coal, oil, and gas. He noted that last year was the first time the three-year average global temperature breached the 1.5°C threshold set in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Renewables Progress, but Geopolitical Headwinds
Guterres acknowledged positive trends: clean power generation, driven largely by solar and wind, exceeded overall electricity demand growth in 2025, and renewables now account for more than a third of the world’s electricity mix. In Europe, fossil generation continues to decline, with countries like Denmark and Portugal leading the shift. However, the United States under President Donald Trump has embraced coal, oil, and gas, slashing support for renewables—a move Guterres called “the mother of all energy shocks,” exacerbated by the US war in Iran.
The UN chief will press for stronger commitments at the next COP climate summit, scheduled for later this year in Turkey. “Every major emitter must accelerate action,” he said. “And every country must over-deliver on its commitments.”
For European readers, the message is clear: as AI booms, the continent’s data centre expansion—from the outskirts of Frankfurt to the fjords of Norway—carries hidden environmental costs that regulators and citizens can no longer ignore. The push for transparency may reshape how tech giants operate in Europe, where the EU’s Digital Services Act and Green Deal already set high standards for accountability.
