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WASHINGTON, February 15: Bill Gates exudes optimism as he discusses the world’s ability to cope with climate change, until it hits manufacturing. Therefore, he is concerned.
There is currently no way to make steel or cement without releasing emissions that warm the climate. However, neither governments nor investors are looking to solve that problem, Gates said.
“That’s the sector that bothers me the most,” Gates said in a video interview with Reuters ahead of the publication this week of his book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.”
The software developer-turned-philanthropist has invested about $ 2 billion in developing clean technologies. But those investments are mainly in electricity generation and storage.
Manufacturing, especially in cheap construction staples, steel and cement, accounts for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. That makes manufacturing more polluting than the energy or transportation sectors, which receive much more policy and investment focus. And the manufacturing sector is destined to grow, as the world’s population increases and countries develop further.
“People still need a basic shelter, certainly in developing countries,” said Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. “It is unlikely that we will stop building buildings.”
Gates plans to push for more research and innovation at the UN climate conference in Glasgow in November. “The idea is to put innovation, including R&D, on the agenda … not just look at the easy stuff.”
During the 2015 UN climate talks in Paris, Gates helped launch a global initiative called Mission Innovation together with US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to link national governments with the private sector in the search and exchange of clean technologies. .
We need “total coordination and actually it’s a very good thing to have some overlap,” Gates told Reuters. But he said there must be diversity in the solutions sought so that governments do not end up duplicating efforts.
Right now, for example, “they’re making a lot of green hydrogen products,” Gates said. “But who is making things difficult?”
Some manufacturing plants can reduce their emissions by connecting to an electrical grid that runs on renewable energy. But that won’t solve all the emissions from making steel and cement, both processes that release carbon dioxide as a by-product.
In the United States, having an energy policy yo-yo among presidential administrations has not helped, he said. “This stop-start approach is too risky for the private sector.”
On a personal note, Gates says in his book that, after years of rejecting calls from activists to divest from fossil fuels, he sold his direct stakes in oil and gas companies in 2019. The Gates Foundation grant did the same. But not because Gates became convinced that divestment would push companies toward clean energy.
Rather, “I don’t want to make a profit if their stock prices go up because we don’t develop zero-carbon alternatives,” he writes. “I would feel bad if I benefited from a delay in reaching zero.” – Reuters
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