JamzNG Latest News, Gist, Entertainment in Nigeria
In the keynote speech at London Climate Action Week, UN chair asks AI companies to “come clean” regarding the full impact of data centers on the environment in terms of carbon, water and land footprint.
The Secretary-General also highlighted how the world’s dependence on oil is driving a climate crisis and an energy sovereignty crisis, the latter linked to massive shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and wars involving Iran, Israel and the United States.
“These crises may seem separate but they have a common origin: fossil fuels. And they demand the same answer: a rapid and just transition to green energy and increased adaptation, resilience and climate justice for those already facing adverse climate impacts,” said Guterres, in his call for political leaders to continue doing the same. global changes similar to requiring the phasing out of leaded gasoline and banning chemicals that cause holes in the ozone layer.
In short: the UN’s plan for energy independence
- Reduce emissions quickly: emissions must peak now and reach net zero by 2050, including through a global push to curb methane pollution.
- Accelerating clean energy: the increase in renewable energy needs to continue, subsidies for fossil fuel projects must end, and fossil fuel profits must be taxed to support vulnerable communities and the energy transition.
- Clean AI: requires large AI companies to disclose the environmental impact of their data centers and provide them with renewable energy by 2030.
- Ensure a fair transition: ensuring the shift to green energy creates jobs, supports communities, and provides development benefits for developing countries.
- Increasing climate resilience: increase investment in adaptation, early warning systems and other measures to protect communities most vulnerable to climate impacts.
- Unlocking fair finance: expand affordable financing for developing countries to invest in clean energy, climate adaptation and sustainable development.
- Defending science and truth: strengthen trust in science, combat climate disinformation, and protect environmental journalists and human rights defenders.
Earth’s tipping point
It has been more than a decade since world leaders agreed in Paris to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, a remarkable show of international unity, led by the UN. Today, even though the Agreement remains in force – and even though the US formally withdrew for a second time in January this year – UN supported scientists warned that average annual temperatures will likely exceed that threshold in the coming years.
“Every fraction of a degree matters,” stressed the UN Secretary General, warning of irreversible damage to coral reefs that cannot survive too warm waters, melting ice sheets that threaten to reshape coastlines and displace millions of people, and the real possibility that some small island nations will be lost to the ocean waves.
Faced with this existential scenario, “the task before us is to strictly limit the limits, shorten their duration and reduce temperatures below 1.5°C as quickly as possible”, stressed Guterres.
‘The mother of all energy shocks’
While he stated that “any peace agreement is welcome and will bring much-needed relief”, referring to a 60-day pause in hostilities to allow Iran-US talks to take place in Switzerland, the UN Secretary General noted that the Middle East crisis has given rise to “the mother of all energy shocks” comparable to the current energy crisis in the Middle East. oil disruptions in the 1970s and Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine.
Although the Middle East wars had a devastating impact on advanced industrial countries, the UN Secretary General emphasized that developing countries were also more severely affected:
“This is a debt shock, a food shock, a development shock,” he told an audience in London.
A just future of renewable energy
“The good news is – unlike past energy crises – we now have a clear way out, a clean way out,” the Secretary-General continued.
He noted that since 2010, the cost of solar energy has plummeted by nearly 90 percent, onshore wind energy by more than 70 percent, and battery storage by 95 percent.
Renewable energy avoids annual carbon dioxide emissions greater than the combined annual carbon dioxide emissions of the US, the European Union and Japan, Guterres said, adding that green energy investments now attract almost twice as much investment as fossil fuels.
“There is no embargo on sunlight and no blockade on wind,” he said.
Seven-point plan for energy independence
As part of the Secretary-General’s blueprint to phase out fossil fuels, he outlined seven key steps:
1: Emission Guterres said the group of rich countries in the G20 “must lead” on this, as they are responsible for about 80 percent of global emissions. Ambitious steps include a Global Call to Action to Fight Methane to reduce emissions of a gas that traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide, but breaks down in the atmosphere in just a decade or two.
“The world is phasing out leaded petrol. We eliminate ozone-depleting chemicals. Methane pollution should be the next priority,” stressed the UN Secretary General.
2: Clean energy projects should be promoted and public subsidies eliminated for new fossil fuel projects. “The eight largest fossil fuel companies reported pocketing an additional $6.5 billion in the first quarter of this year alone…I urge governments to tax them” to help vulnerable families and communities and accelerate the shift to clean, affordable energy, Guterres said.
3: Every major AI company should “measure and publicly disclose environmental impacts in full” data center: them carbon, water and land footprint – and commit to providing renewable energy to every data center by 2030. Currently, AI data centers already consume more electricity than most countries; “it’s time to come clean”, said the UN Secretary General.
By 2030, AI data centers could use enough water to meet the basic needs of sub-Saharan Africa’s 1.3 billion people for an entire year, the UN chief said.
4: “No more extraction without development:” Guterres called for greater support for the movement towards clean energy in a way that benefits workers and communities everywhere and also in developing countries, driven by the UN Climate Conference – COP31 – in Turkey. “The transition itself is no longer in question,” he stressed, adding: “It will be manageable or chaotic, fair or unequal, a source of stability or greater division; and these choices remain ours.”
5: Protect those most at risk from climate chaos by helping them adapt, because this “saves lives, protects homes and communities, helps economies absorb shocks and brings societies together”, stressed the Secretary-General. A contingency system needs to be implemented before shocks become humanitarian and economic disasters, Guterres added. At the same time, developed countries must deliver on their “long-term commitment to double adaptation funding, with a clear path towards tripling”, he said.
6: Support equitable funding to support the phasing out of fossil fuels and a large-scale and rapid green transition: as many developing countries face borrowing costs two to three times higher than developed countries.
“Countries rich in renewable energy potential are currently unable to participate in the green energy revolution,” stressed the UN Secretary General, referring to African countries that receive only two percent of global green energy investment even though they have 60 percent of the world’s best solar power resources.
Guterres highlighted additional lending capacity of $600-800 billion from multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank. These funds must be used “aggressively” to finance future infrastructure and climate adaptation, as well as other investment measures such as taxing high-emission sectors, he stressed.
Likewise, “developed countries must keep their promises”, including support to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage and the Green Climate Fund, the Secretary-General continued, stressing that the $300 billion promised to developing countries must be implemented alongside concrete steps to mobilize $1.3 trillion per year by 2035.
7: Finally, the UN Secretary General urged support for science as a basis for truth and an early warning system – and to address climate lies, as “disinformation spreads deliberately to delay climate action, strengthen vested interests, and erode trust.”
Human rights defenders and journalists reporting on climate and the environment must be protected and trust in evidence and institutions must be supported, Guterres stressed, pointing to the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change, led by the UN, UNESCO and Brazil to support this goal.
Warning from the Kew tree
Receiving the Kew International Medal later in the day, Secretary General pay tribute to the Royal Botanic Gardens as a global center for science and conservation, while warning that the climate crisis is having a devastating impact on nature. Citing the loss of more than 400 trees at Kew during the 2022 drought and the increasing risks facing many species there, he said the fates of nature and humanity were inseparable.
The UN Secretary General emphasized that ending dependence on fossil fuels and accelerating the transition to renewable energy must go hand in hand with protecting forests, restoring degraded ecosystems, protecting oceans and defending science. “When the climate crisis hits the great trees at Kew, it is a wake-up call for us all,” he said, urging greater investment in nature-based solutions to help ensure a safer and more sustainable future for people and the planet.
