New Delhi: Philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has shifted his long-standing “doomsday view of climate change” to a more sustainable, broader and measured approach. In a memo published on Gates Notes, a personal blogging website for Gates, the billionaire discussed the need to shift focus from near-term emissions goals to human welfare.
“The doomsday outlook is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals, and it’s diverting resources from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world,” he wrote.
Published Monday, the memo, Three tough truths about climate, suggested that we look for ways to help the world adapt to climate change.
The memo comes just a day after the UN announced that humanity has missed its goal of limiting global heating to 1.5 °C. Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, warned of “devastating consequences”.
Impact on vulnerable communities
Gates had earlier advocated for limiting global temperature rise. He said that in a few decades, climate change would devastate civilisation because of increasing heat and storms.
In the recent memo, Gates reiterated that climate change will have serious consequences, but maintained that it won’t lead to humanity’s demise.
“People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future. Emissions projections have gone down, and with the right policies and investments, innovation will allow us to drive emissions down much further,” he wrote.
However, he stressed the impact on underprivileged communities in the poorest countries.
Gates’ views on climate change have always revolved around innovation, technology, and policy as the keys to solving the climate crisis. In the memo, he said that it is not too late to adopt a different view and adjust our strategies to prioritise climate adaptation and human development. Next month’s global climate summit, COP30, he wrote, is a good starting point.
The billionaire suggested that our chief goal should be to prevent the suffering of the poor.
“Although climate change will hurt poor people more than anyone else, for the vast majority of them it will not be the only or even the biggest threat to their lives and welfare. The biggest problems are poverty and disease, just as they always have been,” he wrote.
He is calling for a more prudent allocation of resources so that they can help improve the lives of the most vulnerable people.
Gates was careful to ensure that he didn’t downplay the severity of the climate crisis. “Climate change is a very important problem. It needs to be solved, along with other problems like malaria and malnutrition,” he wrote.
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Trump’s attack on climate science
Speaking to CNBC Tuesday, Gates said that his latest memo is partly driven by the cuts in climate aid by the US and other Western countries. “The plea here is to say, OK, let’s take that very limited money and not have some partitioned off for particular causes,” he said.
The Donald Trump administration has cut the climate aid to developing economies. A Bloomberg report called it a war against “established climate science”. Since January, there have been mass firings, regulatory rollbacks, and programme and funding cuts.
Gates’ climate group, Breakthrough Energy, had to fire dozens in March. The billionaire called the Trump administration’s cutting of clean energy programmes a “huge disappointment”.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)