<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/29/gas-power-ai-climate>
"The US is leading a huge global surge in new gas-fired power generation that
will cause a major leap in planet-heating emissions, with this record boom
driven by the expansion of energy-hungry datacenters to service artificial
intelligence, according to a new forecast.
This year is set to shatter the annual record for new gas power additions
around the world, with projects in development expected to grow existing global
gas capacity by nearly 50%, a report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) found.
The US is at the forefront of a global push for gas that is set to escalate
over the next five years, after tripling its planned gas-fired capacity in
2025. Much of this new capacity will be devoted to the vast electricity needs
of AI, with a third of the 252 gigawatts of gas power in development set to be
situated on site at datacenters.
All of this new gas energy is set to come at a significant cost to the climate,
amid ongoing warnings from scientists that fossil fuels must be rapidly phased
out to avoid disastrous global heating.
The gas projects in development in the US will, if all completed, cause 12.1bn
tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions over their lifetimes, which is double the
current annual emissions coming from all sources in the US. Worldwide, the
planned gas boom will cause 53.2bn tonnes of emissions over projects’ lifetimes
if fulfilled, pushing the planet towards even worse heatwaves, droughts, floods
and other climate impacts.
“Locking in new gas plants to meet uncertain AI energy demand means hard-wiring
decades of pollution into a gambit that could be solved with flexible, clean
power,” said Jenny Martos, project manager at GEM’s oil and gas plant tracker.
“As the AI bubble inflates, the US must decide whether it will double down on a
fossil future while the rest of the world pivots to renewables.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
