Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Monday defended his call to refocus the climate debate on prioritizing human welfare.
In an interview with Axios n Monday evening, in front of about 1,000 students at the California Institute of Technology, Gates stood by the controversial memo he released last week, in which he argued that climate change is a serious problem but will not bring about the end of civilization. He also urged the world to focus more on preventing human suffering than on limiting rising temperatures.
“I’m glad people are listening,” Gates said at the event, noting it’s difficult to convey “nuanced positions nowadays.”
Gates has faced significant backlash from all sides of the climate debate since releasing his controversial memo on Oct. 28. Many conservatives have characterized the memo as a backpedaling of the pro-climate agenda.
“I (WE!) just won the War on the Climate Change Hoax. Bill Gates has finally admitted that he was completely WRONG on the issue. It took courage to do so, and for that we are all grateful,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform last week.
But Gates, at the Monday event, pushed back against that take.
“It’s a gigantic misreading of the memo,” Gates said of Trump’s view and similar sentiments. Gates noted his personal funding of both climate change and public health efforts are increasing.
“I didn’t think the memo was going to convert the non-believers into believers, and sure enough, it didn’t convert them,” Gates said at the event.
At a roundtable discussion with reporters ahead of the memo’s release, Gates recognized that the “tough truths about climate” contained in the memo were likely to 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 told reporters, according to The Associated Press. “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.”
In the memo, Gates criticized the climate community for focusing too much on near-term goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, diverting resources from effective ways of improving lives and mitigating suffering today.
Gates, in the Monday interview, pushed back on climate scientists who suggested he was setting up a false dichotomy between mitigating poverty and addressing climate change.
“What world do they live in?” Gates said, noting many foreign aid budgets must choose between climate and public health. “This is a numeric game in a world with very finite resources, more finite than they should be.”
