microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates, who wrote a book in 2021 titled “How to Avoid Climate Disaster,” says leaders now need to change their approach to climate change.
In a letter released Tuesday ahead of next week’s COP30 UN climate change summit, Gates argued that too many resources are focused on emissions and the environment, and that more money should be directed to “improving lives” and curbing disease and poverty.
“Climate is very important, but it has to be considered in the context of overall human well-being,” Gates told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin in an exclusive interview. “I didn’t choose that position because everyone agrees with it. I think that’s the intellectually correct answer.”
In his letter, Gates criticized the “doomsday view” on climate change and said leaders needed to make a “strategic shift” to focus on issues that have “the greatest impact on human well-being.”
“This is the best way to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy and productive life, regardless of where they were born or what their circumstances were,” he wrote.
Breakthrough Energy, Gates’ climate change-focused investment fund, reportedly cut dozens of staff earlier this year. The New York Times reported in March that “the changes show how Mr. Gates is reshaping his empire for the Trump era.”
This year’s climate summit in Brazil comes nearly a decade after world leaders adopted the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
Gates said the initial goal was unrealistic.
Over the past decade, the U.S. government has been in and out of this commitment, depending on who is in the White House.
The United States originally entered into the agreement under President Barack Obama, but withdrew from the agreement when President Donald Trump first took office in 2017. After President Joe Biden returned, President Trump issued an executive order to withdraw from the agreement again during his second term.
Gates said in 2017 that he was “deeply concerned” but “hopeful” that the United States would continue to support innovation after Trump pulled out of the deal.
Mr. Gates told Mr. Sorkin that it was “very disappointing” to backtrack on efforts to combat climate change, but he praised companies like Microsoft for investing in alternative energy technologies. Continued support for these innovations will reduce costs, he said.
Over the past decade, several leading technology companies, including: meta, alphabet Microsoft and Microsoft have set a 2030 goal to achieve net-zero emissions, or carbon negative.
Melanie Nakagawa, Microsoft’s head of sustainability, acknowledged in February that the company is moving “away” from its previous goals as it focuses on developing artificial intelligence.
“But the force that creates this distance from our goals in the short term is the same one that will help us build bigger, faster, more powerful rockets to reach our goals in the long term: artificial intelligence (AI),” she wrote.
The enormous energy demands required to meet the growing power requirements of data centers have raised concerns among many climate change activists.
Regarding concerns about AI and bubble formation, Gates said many investments will be a “dead end.”
Still, he added, “If you want to be a technology company, you can’t say no. Let’s stay out of this race.”
