Bill Gates made waves with his statements on climate change. Here’s why he’s right–and what most peo
- Media Manager
- Nov 16, 2023
- 1 min read
Fortune
Written By: Gabriel Labbate
Published: November 16th, 2023
When Bill Gates speaks, people listen. His contributions to tackling global problems have been nothing short of extraordinary, from funding cutting-edge vaccine development to supporting an array of groundbreaking initiatives on climate change. At New York Climate Week in September, his perspectives on climate change did not go unnoticed–and even made waves.
Essentially, his argument is that emissions will peak and then start to go down. They won’t go down as fast as we want them to, so temperatures will continue to rise. Reversing this trend will require massive carbon removal. The goal of staying below 2 degrees Celsius (much less 1.5) appears lost, but we will not find ourselves in worst-case scenarios, and it is unlikely we will go above 3C. Planting trees will not solve the climate problem, he says. Doing climate policy by brute force will not work either. Better to invest in new technologies for carbon removal, clean energy, and electric vehicles and to implement policies like carbon taxes that could fund future green technologies.
It’s a solid argument, but one that depends on nature playing its part in the transition. There is no chance we can limit the worst effects of climate change without saving our remaining ecosystems.
Here are two things to consider. First, there is a large untapped mitigation potential from nature which could offer a substantial contribution towards stabilizing our climate. Second, there is the presence of so-called tipping points which could make unfeasible climate strategies that already require a massive volume of carbon removals.
