Run AI fully on green energy by 2030, UN chief tells Big Tech

Major technology companies should ensure all their data centers, which increasingly power artificial intelligence (AI) systems, run entirely on green energy by 2030, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in New York on Tuesday, warning that AI’s rising energy demands risk undermining climate goals if left unchecked.

Guterres made the remarks while unveiling the UN’s new energy transition report, Seizing the Moment of Opportunity, in partnership with the International Renewable Energy Agency.

“AI can boost efficiency, innovation, and resilience in energy systems, but it is also energy-hungry,” Guterres said in a prepared speech, titled A Moment of Opportunity: Supercharging the Clean Energy Age.

He pointed to estimates that a single large data center can consume as much electricity as 100,000 homes, with the largest expected to use 20 times that.

By 2030, global data center electricity consumption could equal Japan’s current power demand, he said.

“The future is being built in the cloud,” he said. “It must be powered by the sun, the wind, and the promise of a better world.”

Guterres argued that the fossil fuel era is ending, and the world stands on the cusp of a clean energy age, thanks to plummeting costs and surging investment in renewables.

He noted that last year alone global investment in clean energy reached $2 trillion, or $800 billion more than was spent on fossil fuels, with solar and wind already cutting emissions by an amount equal to the European Union’s annual output.

“This is not just a shift in power, it’s a shift in possibility,” he said. “The clean energy future is no longer a promise. It’s a fact. No government, no industry, no special interest can stop it.”

But he warned that the transition is not happening fast enough or fairly enough.

Developing countries, particularly in Africa, are being left behind even though they hold vast untapped renewable potential.

He pressed advanced economies to lead the way by submitting ambitious new national climate plans ahead of COP30 this November in Brazil that align with the 1.5°C limit, double energy efficiency, triple renewable capacity, and end fossil fuel subsidies.

Guterres also outlined six areas of action to accelerate the transition, from scaling up grids and storage to reforming trade and finance to make clean energy investments more accessible.

He stressed the need for a just transition that supports workers and communities and avoids repeating the injustices of extractive industries in developing countries.

“The fossil fuel age is flailing and failing,” he declared. “We are in the dawn of a new energy era, where cheap, clean, abundant energy powers a world rich in economic opportunity. That world is within reach. But it won’t happen on its own. Not fast enough. Not fair enough. It is up to us.”