Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates thinks the world is likely to miss the 2.7°F (1.5°C) climate change target, as set out in the aims of the Paris Agreement.
Gates, who was speaking to former UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt during COP26 in Glasgow, said that ‘there’s no comparable feat that mankind has ever achieved’.
Hitting the target – limiting the global temperature increase to 2.7°F (1.5°C) above pre-industrial levels – is seen as key to averting a planetary catastrophe, leading to devastation in the form of frequent climate disasters and millions of deaths.
Gates did praise the UK’s ‘exemplary’ use green innovations, including offshore wind farms. He also said that the country received a’very high grade on climate change.
Gates joined COP26 just days after toasting his 66th birthday with Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos on his $2million-a-week rental superyacht.
Superyachts release 7,020 tons of CO2 per year or 19 tons per daily, making them the target for hypocrisy accusations.
Scroll down to see the video
Bill Gates listens to the COP26 UN Climate Summit’s ‘Accelerating Clean Technology Innovation and Deployment’ event, Tuesday, November 2, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.
The former Microsoft CEO stated, “There’s no comparable feat that humanity has ever achieved to what it takes to combat climate change,” in an interview with Hunt for Policy Exchange.
“It’s all a matter degrees, so it’s all a matter. That is, hitting 2.5°C is better than hitting 3°C, hitting 2°C is better than the hitting 2.5°C.
“[Hitting] 1.5°C will be very difficult. I doubt we’ll be capable of achieving that.
The Paris Agreement, first signed in 2015 by the international community, is an international agreement that aims to limit and stop climate change.
It hopes to hold the increase in the global average temperature to below 2°C (3.6ºF) ‘and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C (2.7°F)’.
But Gates called for ‘rapid innovation’ in green technologies if these ambitious targets are going to be hit.
This includes lowering the cost of green technologies like solar panels and lithium-ion battery to allow mass rollouts in middle-income countries such as India and China.
“What happened with solar panels, which were very expensive, now they’re inexpensive, or lithium-ion cells?” said Gates. He was once the world’s richest person.
Bill Gates attends the World Leadership Summit ‘Accelerating Clean Technology Innovation and Deployment’ on day three of COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.
‘We need to do that for about six other technologies – green steel, cheap hydrogen, offshore wind.
“It does take a lot of money, but we have many avenues of innovation. We’re not just counting one path. But we must see rapid innovation.
‘Now, humanity is far richer and much more knowledgeable than ever before. We have the digital tools to do these things.
Gates – who founded Microsoft with the late Paul Allen in 1975 – pointed out that emissions in the world come from middle-income countries.
High income countries, such as the UK, the US and Australia, therefore have to work to reduce the cost of green products – what Gates calls a ‘green premium’.
‘We cannot afford to subsidise the green premiums to the middle-income countries,’ Gates told Hunt. It would cost trillions of money.
Gates chose the UK to be a country that has helped “bootstrap” new green technologies like offshore wind farms.
Wind power is a renewable energy source and has a smaller environmental impact than burning fossil-fuels.
Gates stated that “Wind will play a major role in that much larger power generation network for the future, on global basis.”
Gates was also seen at COP26 on day three, mingling in a ‘clean tech’ event with world leaders like the Prime Minister of India.
He was later pictured with Prince Charles and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a reception inside Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus (SEC).
Offshore wind farms are more efficient that those on land because they spin faster due to stronger winds. They generate more energy.
Right: Prince Charles talks with Gates, as he hosts a reception for world leaders, during the COP26 Summit, in Glasgow (Scotland), Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Bill Gates watches Paul Allen, his friend and future co-founder of Microsoft, type on a teletype terminal at Lakeside School in 1968. He was only 13 years old in this photo
Gates is currently ranked fourth on the list of richest people in the world – behind Bezos, SpaceX founder Elon Musk and French businessman Bernard Arnault.
After Allen and Gates met at high school, Allen founded Microsoft. Both left university to create the company.
According to Allen’s autobiography, Gates and Allen shared a passion in computers and used dumpster diving to print-outs with computer programme code.