Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks during the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. The first-ever Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit brings together climate leaders to showcase transformative solutions that repair and regenerate the planet.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesRich countries are going to have to step up their spending to accelerate the innovation, development and deployment of technologies that will help the world reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to Bill Gates.Developing economies are responsible for the majority of these emissions that cause global warming, but low- and middle-income countries should not be expected to slow the development of their economies for the sake of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft and founder of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a leading climate-technology investment company.It is the responsibility of the richest countries, like the United States, which owe much of their own current wealth to the burning of fossil fuels, to fund the innovation process of technologies to decarbonize all sectors of the economy, Gates said.Gates lays out this assessment in an essay titled, “State of the Energy Transition,” which was published on his personal blog on Tuesday. In the essay, the Microsoft co-founder gives a brief retrospective of how he views the world’s response to global warming in the 15 years since he started learning about climate change.His assessment is encouraging in some respects and bleak in others. He’s generally encouraged by how some governments and private companies have realized the urgency of climate change and have begun investing accordingly. But he’s also honest about how the world is not moving fast enough or being unified enough to meet the challenge, which he sees as the hardest and most existential humanity has ever faced.Low- and middle-income countries are building aggressively to achieve the standard of living their people aspire to — and they should be. Many countries in Europe and North America filled the atmosphere with carbon to achieve prosperity, and it is both unrealistic and unfai …
Bill Gates says rich countries must drive climate change innovation – CNBC
