UN chief lays out seven-point blueprint for clean energy transition

UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced a seven-point blueprint at London Climate Action Week calling for an urgent, fair transition from fossil fuels to clean energy and demanding major AI companies disclose and reduce the environmental footprints of their data centers.

• Main announcement: At London Climate Action Week on 23 June 2026, António Guterres set out a seven-point plan including peaking emissions immediately and reaching net zero by 2050, a global Call to Action on Methane, ending public subsidies for new fossil projects, and a mandate that every major AI company measure and publicly disclose data-center carbon, water and land footprints and power them with renewable energy by 2030. The speech specifically referenced taxing fossil-fuel profits (noting $6.5 billion extra earned by the eight largest fossil firms in Q1) and asked multilateral development banks to use $600–800 billion of additional lending capacity to finance the transition.
• Background and other details: The Secretary-General linked the plan to geopolitical shocks (Strait of Hormuz, Middle East war) and COP31 in Türkiye as the UN Climate Conference driver; he reiterated calls for developed countries to deliver on climate finance including the $300 billion previously pledged and to help mobilize $1.3 trillion a year by 2035, while urging protection for science, journalists and human-rights defenders and support for the UN-led Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change.