The United Nations secretary-general has launched an AI Environmental Transparency Initiative that compels the world’s largest artificial intelligence companies to measure and publicly disclose the full environmental footprint of their data centres. The move, announced during London Climate Action Week, comes as a UN study published in early June shows that data centres consumed 448 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025 — enough to rank eleventh globally if they were a country, just behind France. By 2030, the same analysis projects, their power demand could exceed that of all but five nations, while water consumption could meet the basic annual needs of sub-Saharan Africa’s 1.3 billion people.

Guterres framed the demand as an end to hidden costs. AI firms are to report standardised data on carbon emissions, water use, land occupation and energy demand, and to commit to powering all facilities exclusively with renewable sources before the end of the decade. The intervention targets a structural opacity: communities hosting the infrastructure often have no visibility on its resource draw, even as the sector’s global electricity share moves from roughly 1.5 percent today towards 3 percent by 2030. Currently, the industry relies on voluntary net-zero pledges and a patchwork of renewable electricity targets, while several operators are turning to natural gas or promoting nuclear power for new projects.

The transparency initiative was presented alongside a broader call to action on methane, the second-largest driver of warming after carbon dioxide. Guterres urged fossil fuel companies to repair leaks, end routine flaring and adopt a science-based global standard, noting that 167 billion cubic metres of gas were flared in 2025 alone — equivalent to Africa’s annual consumption. Viewed from European capitals, the twin appeals land as a record heatwave grips western Europe, with absolute temperature records broken in France and red alerts in fifteen Italian cities, reinforcing the secretary-general’s argument that climate and energy crises share a “destructive origin” in fossil fuels.

The next procedural milestone is a leaders’ meeting Guterres will convene in September, ahead of the COP31 climate conference in Turkey, designed to accelerate what he termed a “just transition” away from hydrocarbons. For the AI sector, the immediate test is whether major firms adopt the requested disclosure standards and binding renewable-energy commitments, or continue to treat environmental reporting as voluntary.