UN report warns AI and green transitions risk deepening inequality

UN News reports on a study by the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) warning that artificial intelligence, green energy and wider economic shifts could leave vulnerable communities behind. Benefiting from these changes often takes specialised skills and access to up-to-date technology, which puts disadvantaged groups at risk. The groups it flags as especially exposed are women, youth, the elderly, disabled people, migrants, Indigenous Peoples and low-income communities. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke in a video message at its launch.

DESA presents social inclusion as both a moral imperative and an economic necessity. Its finding is that giving marginalised people more openings widens the productive workforce, builds human capital, boosts innovation and entrepreneurship, improves how labour is allocated, and spreads productivity gains more widely. The report stresses urgency, since people shut out of key systems face higher barriers to catching up later.

Its recommendations to governments begin with ongoing training and reskilling for workers whose jobs AI may replace or alter, rather than a narrow focus on creating new jobs. It asks that the move to renewable energy include retraining, alternative work and social assistance for fossil fuel workers and communities. Governments should widen affordable internet access, digital infrastructure and technology training, especially in disadvantaged areas, and should measure growth by more than GDP, adding poverty reduction, education and healthcare access, job security, inequality and environmental protection.

On funding, Guterres noted that nearly half of the poorest countries are in or near debt distress, with interest costs relative to revenue at a generational high. He urged leaders to honour pledges from the previous year, namely the Sevilla Commitment and the Doha declaration on social development, and called for reform of international financial institutions.