The United Nations (UN) has told major tech firms to fully power their Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centers with renewable energy by 2030 or risk pushing the planet’s climate goals off track.
This was the rallying cry from UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday in New York, as he launched a new report titled “Seizing the Moment of Opportunity”, produced in collaboration with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
The report outlines urgent steps needed to fast-track the global energy transition.
“AI can boost efficiency, innovation, and resilience in energy systems, but it is also energy hungry. This is not sustainable, unless we make it so,” Guterres warned.
AI is supercharging energy demand
The report highlights the growing strain that artificial intelligence and cloud computing are placing on global power systems.
- According to the report, a single large AI data center now consumes as much electricity as 100,000 homes, and the next generation of mega-centers could consume 20 times more.
- If unchecked, data centers could use as much electricity as Japan does today by 2030, according to UN estimates.
- Guterres also emphasized responsible water use for data center cooling, urging big tech firms to factor environmental sustainability into their infrastructure plans.
Clean energy progress uneven across the globe
While renewable energy adoption is accelerating, driven by plummeting costs, the UN says progress is concentrated in developed markets, particularly the U.S., Europe, and China.
In contrast, developing countries are falling behind, with limited access to financing, infrastructure, and clean energy technologies.
Africa, for instance, attracted just 1.5% of global renewable energy investment in 2024, despite housing 85% of the world’s people without electricity access.
“The race for the new must not be a race for the few. It must be a relay, shared, inclusive, and resilient,” Guterres said.
The report also notes that since the Paris Agreement came into force in 2016, less than one in five dollars invested in clean power has gone to emerging markets outside of China.
Clean energy now cheaper than fossil fuels
Despite geopolitical risks and short-term volatility, the UN report notes that clean energy is becoming more competitive by the day.
More than 90% of new renewable projects now produce electricity at a lower cost than the cheapest fossil fuel option.
- In 2024 alone, $2 trillion was invested in clean energy, dwarfing the $1.2 trillion that went into fossil fuels.
- While declaring that the energy transition has reached a point of no return, Guterres said clean energy future is no longer a promise, but a fact, adding that no government or industry can stop it.
- Still, he warned that deep inequality in clean power adoption threatens to derail global climate targets.
- As countries prepare to submit new climate pledges ahead of COP30 in Brazil this November, the spotlight is on the G20 nations, which are responsible for the majority of global emissions.
