Every year as top government officials come to the United Nations General Assembly<\/a> and business executives flock to New York City Climate Week sessions, global warming generates lots of talk but little action. This time, two new forces \u2014 the rise of energy-hungry artificial intelligence and data centers and higher fossil fuel prices from wars in Iran and Ukraine \u2014 should change the discussion, experts and activists said. That’s on top of the usual climate-driven disasters that reached new levels of destruction, with more than 1,300 killed in sudden flooding caused by a collapsing glacier<\/a> on the Nepal-China border.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve gone from seeing the fingerprints of climate change in individual events to seeing the handprint of climate change on the whole world,\u201d said scientist Bill Hare, CEO of the organization Climate Analytics.<\/p>\n
Climate change is \u201cdriving up food prices and wider inflation,\u201d U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said Monday, Sept. 21 in prepared remarks. \u201cBillions of people around the world are realizing that fossil fuel dependence is hitting them hard at the fuel pump<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Protests about high prices<\/a> have sparked worldwide<\/a>. In the U.S., consumer confidence<\/a> is plunging while gas prices have reached record highs<\/a>. Stiell said energy shortages due to the Iran war have cost American consumers more than $100 billion in higher fuel prices.<\/p>\n Mohamed Adow, director of Powershift Africa and a veteran climate negotiations analyst, said there are two climate stories happening at the same time: \u201cOne is extremely hopeful. Renewable energy is booming, technology is improving and the economics of clean energy increasingly make sense without anyone having to make a moral argument for it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other is terrifying. Climate impacts are accelerating faster than our political and financial systems are responding,\u201d Adow said. \u201cNew York needs to bring those two stories together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The environmental footprint of artificial intelligence and data centers looms large this week. That’s because of the fear that the data center boom will mean a surge in coal, oil and gas use, which emits heat-trapping gases, even though data centers can be powered with zero-emission fuels.<\/p>\n United Nations officials are blunt in describing the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cEnergy-guzzling artificial intelligence<\/a> is driving up planet-heating pollution from coal, oil and gas, while ratcheting up energy costs for households and businesses. All while fueling disinformation, social division, and even larger inequalities of wealth,\u201d Stiell said. \u201cAI leaders are now on thin ice when it comes to license to operate, and sinking deep underwater when it comes to public support.\u201d<\/p>\n The issue touches on fairness and the growing gap between rich and poor and represents more concrete in people’s backyards, so it reaches people not as worried about climate change, said Tufts University analyst Jennifer Morgan, a former German top climate negotiator and CEO of Greenpeace.<\/p>\n In some ways, AI is becoming more vilified in climate talks than the fossil fuel industry, but the industry \u201chas always been good at deflection,\u201d Morgan said.<\/p>\n Activists plan to focus on AI in the week’s scheduled climate protests.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is becoming very tangible to people. This is about what’s happening to my electricity bill,\u201d said Climate Justice Alliance legislative director Mar Zepeda, who said her Washington, D.C., electric bill increased $200 in the past month.<\/p>\n National Artificial Intelligence Association President Caleb Max said AI now uses about 1.5% of global electricity, and it should reach 3% by the end of the decade, but it’s becoming much more efficient. And, he said, it could help solve the climate problem by unlocking \u201cnumerous currently unknown advances in science, technology and research.\u201d<\/p>\n Johan Rockstr\u00f6m, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said data centers should not be the only focus because fossil fuels are the source of the climate crisis.<\/p>\n
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\nThe effects of rising prices <\/p>\n
\nA spotlight on AI <\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790002449_709_f011f257-5d75-42e6-81cf-79637870419d_1140x641.jpg\")
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\nWorld leaders to discuss adding renewable power faster <\/p>\n