Could the Microsoft co-founder be having a change of heart?
Multi-billionaire Bill Gates appeared to reverse course on some of his previous climate change remarks and suggested that some activists have made alarmist predictions.
“There’s a lot of climate exaggeration,” said Mr. Gates, who helped found Microsoft and is now a multi-billionaire philanthropist, in a recent event. “The climate is not the end of the planet. So the planet is going to be fine.”
He made those remarks at the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit alongside fellow billionaire Michael Bloomberg and Prince William of the United Kingdom. His comments about “exaggeration” did not include any specific examples.
During a New York Times event days later, he made a similar comment about the climate. “There are effects on humanity, the planet less so,” Mr. Gates said, adding that “no temperate country is going to become uninhabitable.”
“It’s pretty clear we’re not going to go to extreme scenarios,” he added. “Emissions will peak and then start to go down. They won’t go down as fast as we want them to and so the temperature will continue to rise and once the temperature has risen it doesn’t go down very quickly, unless you do massive carbon removal.”
In the NY Times event, Mr. Gates also touted himself as “the person who’s doing the most on climate in terms of the innovation and in how we can square multiple goals,” suggesting that he’s qualified to make comments regarding the climate due to his funding.
Mr. Gates, meanwhile, said at the NY Times event that if world leaders are going to implement climate polices, it cannot be achieved by using “brute force.”
“If you try to do climate brute force, you will get people who say, ‘I like climate but I don’t want to bear that cost and reduce my standard of living,’” Mr. Gates said. “Without innovation, it’s unlikely, particularly in middle-income countries, that the brute force approach will be successful.”
