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Three tough truths about climate – What I want everyone at COP30 to know. – By Bill Gates –
Gates: “It’s time to put human welfare at the center of our climate strategies”
Climate Change “will not lead to humanity’s demise.”
Urges “human development high on the agenda.”
“This is a chance to refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives. Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world’s poorest countries.”
“My own carbon footprint (which I fully offset with legitimate carbon credits)…”
“So I urge everyone at COP30 to ask: How do we make sure aid spending is delivering the greatest possible impact for the most vulnerable people? Is the money designated for climate being spent on the right things?”
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NYT: Bill Gates Says Climate Change ‘Will Not Lead to Humanity’s Demise’ – In a memo, the Microsoft co-founder warned against a “doomsday outlook” and appears to have shifted some of his views about climate change. – By David Gelles – (archived link)
NYT excerpt: Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder who has spent billions of his own money to raise the alarm about the dangers of climate change, is now pushing back against what he calls a “doomsday outlook” and appears to have shifted his stance on the risks posed by a warming planet.
In a lengthy memo released Tuesday, Mr. Gates sought to tamp down the alarmism he said many people use to describe the effects of rising temperatures. Instead, he called for redirecting efforts toward improving lives in the developing world.
“Although climate change will have serious consequences — particularly for people in the poorest countries — it will not lead to humanity’s demise,” he wrote. “People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.”
Coming just four years after he published a book titled “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” Tuesday’s memo appears to amount to a major reframing of how Mr. Gates, who is worth an estimated $122 billion, is thinking about the challenges posed by a rapidly warming world.
It arrives a week before world leaders gather in Belém, Brazil, for the United Nations annual climate summit, known this year as COP30. Mr. Gates, who turned 70 on Tuesday and has attended the event in previous years, will not be participating. He declined to comment about his memo.
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And in May, Mr. Gates announced plans to wind down the Gates Foundation, which has spent billions on climate-related issues, including a $1.4 billion commitment to help farmers in poor countries adapt to a hotter planet.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Bill Gates thinks climate change is a serious problem but it won’t be the end of civilization. He thinks scientific innovation will curb it, and it’s instead time for a “strategic pivot” in the global climate fight: from focusing on limiting rising temperatures to fighting poverty and preventing disease.
A doomsday outlook has led the climate community to focus too much on near-term goals to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that cause warming, diverting resources from the most effective things that can be done to improve life in a warming world, Gates said. In a memo released Tuesday, Gates said the world’s primary goal should instead be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions in the world’s poorest countries.
If given a choice between eradicating malaria and a tenth of a degree increase in warming, Gates told reporters, “I’ll let the temperature go up 0.1 degree to get rid of malaria. People don’t understand the suffering that exists today.”
He wrote his 17-page memo hoping to have an impact on next month’s United Nations climate change conference in Brazil. He’s urging world leaders to ask whether the little money designated for climate is being spent on the right things.
Gates, whose foundation provides financial support for Associated Press coverage of health and development in Africa, is influential in the climate change conversation. He expects his “tough truths about climate” memo will be controversial.
“If you think climate is not important, you won’t agree with the memo. If you think climate is the only cause and apocalyptic, you won’t agree with the memo,” Gates said during a roundtable discussion with reporters ahead of the release. “It’s kind of this pragmatic view of somebody who’s, you know, trying to maximize the money and the innovation that goes to help in these poor countries.”
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Reuters: Billionaire Bill Gates calls for climate strategy pivot ahead of COP30 –
Gates urges leaders to focus on adaptation, health
COP30 climate talks in Brazil start in early November
Gates says temperature goal not the best measure of progress
(Reuters) – Billionaire investor and philanthropist Bill Gates called on world leaders on Tuesday to adapt to extreme weather and focus on improving health outcomes rather than temperature reduction targets ahead of the COP30 climate talks in Brazil.
COP30 will be held November 10-21 in the port city of Belem in Brazil’s lower Amazon region. Countries are due to present updated national climate commitments and assess progress on renewable energy targets agreed at previous summits.
The world has spent the last decade working towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, aiming to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average by mid-century – something that remains well off-track.
While climate change was serious, it was “not civilization-ending”, Gates posted on his personal blog. He wrote that rather than focus on temperature as the best measure of progress, climate resilience would be better built by strengthening health and prosperity.
He called for a shift in focus toward improving human welfare, particularly in vulnerable regions, through investments in energy access, healthcare, and agricultural resilience.
These areas, he argued, offered more equitable benefits than temperature goals and should be central to climate strategies discussed at COP30.
Gates, who has invested billions to accelerate clean technology innovation through his climate-focused venture network, Breakthrough Energy, also challenged policymakers and donors to scrutinise whether climate aid was being spent effectively.
He urged them to use data to maximise impact, and called on investors to back companies developing high-impact clean technologies so they could more quickly lower costs.
He said direct deaths from natural disasters have fallen 90% over the last century to between 40,000 and 50,000 annually, largely due to better warning systems and more resilient infrastructure.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the World Meteorological Organization last week urged countries to implement disaster warning systems to protect people against extreme weather.
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University of Penn’s Michael Mann reacts to Gates: “His approach and framing is so misguided.”
Bill Gates changes his tune on climate change. Now he calls the “doomsday view of climate change” wrong.
Welcome to the club, Bill.
Here 3 climate scientists debunk several of the doomsday myths: pic.twitter.com/jV9TYxdzHt
— John Stossel (@JohnStossel) October 28, 2025
Morano: Gates’ about-face on climate could be linked to his AI business concerns
Wash Times: Trump celebrates win against climate ‘hoax’ after Bill Gates pivots on global warming
In 2019 Bill Gates was saying that we had to stop cows from farting, eat fake meat, and get to net zero emissions globally to prevent climate catastrophe.
If you questioned any of it, you were called an uneducated, science-denying caveman.
Today Gates said that we will never… pic.twitter.com/O0z0fDhoOd
— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 28, 2025
Bill Gates changes his tune on climate change. Now he calls the “doomsday view of climate change” wrong.
Welcome to the club, Bill.
Here 3 climate scientists debunk several of the doomsday myths: pic.twitter.com/jV9TYxdzHt
— John Stossel (@JohnStossel) October 28, 2025
