Bill Gates says Covid pandemic 'easier' to end than climate change
Ending the pandemic is 'very, very easy' when compared to the challenges involved in tackling the crisis, warns Bill Gates. The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft has a new book out called How to Avoid a Climate Disaster where he sets out the 'urgency of addressing climate change'. In his book Gates says he is an 'imperfect messenger' due to his wealth, houses and travel, admitting he even took a private jet to the 2015 Paris climate summit. During promotion for the book Gates told that solving climate change would be 'the most amazing thing humanity has ever done'. He said that compared to the sacrifices and efforts required to properly forestall a major life ending climate crisis, ending Covid-19 was 'very, very easy'. 'The pandemic will come to an end because these amazing vaccines were invented in a year and we're trying to scale them up and adapt to the variance,' he said. Solving climate change will require a major global transition to renewable power and changes to our way of life, says Gates, adding there is 'no precedent for this'. The billionaire was inspired to write his new book while determining the best way to bring electricity to the remotest parts of the world without building coal plants. He said the challenge facing the world is to reduce greenhouse gases - from the 51 billion added to the atmosphere annually now, to zero by 2050. Not everyone believes Gates is the right person to speak on this issue. Rolf Skar at Greenpeace USA told Wired that while the book is focused on avoiding a climate disaster, the author isn't doing enough to change his personal habits. 'His investment in private jets and Microsoft's AI contracts with Exxon, Chevron and BP to extract more fossil fuels are adding to the crisis. Billionaires like Mr Gates need to lead by example or they won't be taken seriously.' Gates believes a combination of new technology, regulation and market forces is the solution, rather than asking people to change their way of life. 'India is going to build housing for their people, provide lighting at night, air condition to make conditions liveable,' he told BBC News, adding that global demand will not reduce even if it does reduce in some countries. A focus on new technology can help reach that target, Gates told the BBC, adding that renewable sources like wind and solar can help decarbonise electricity. However, electricity accounts for 30 per cent of total emissions, with the remaining 70 per cent through transport, steel, cement, fertiliser production and more. Decarbonising the rest of the economy will be a 'major transition' that will require new technologies and techniques - as there currently is no way to do it effectively. Gates says the government needs to lead efforts to create a new global innovation effort on a scale the 'world has never seen before'. This includes new regulations that price fossil fuels based on the cost of the damage they do to the environment, not just the cost of production and generation. Currently users don't usually pay for any environmental damage caused by pollutants in fossil fuels - from petrol or heating - but Gates says that should change, to the point where we are paying for the pain caused by emitting carbon dioxide. 'We need to have price signals to tell the private sector that we want green products,' Gates said in a promotional interview with BBC News. His 'green premium' plan would allow for a wholesale transformation while maintaining lifestyles in high income countries and lift billions out of poverty. The solution presented by Gates in his book is to price the 'externalities' of carbon production including its negative impact on the environment. He says doing so would better reflect the 'true cost' of fossil fuels and make greener alternatives more financially viable in comparison. Currently many green alternatives cost more than carbon producing versions of the same technology and in some nations this deters transition, especially in fast-growing parts of Asia, Africa and South America. There needs to be huge investment by governments in research and development and support through regulation to allow the market for new technologies to thrive, said Gates, adding that will also bring down the price of green solutions. Gates says it will be 'impossible' to avoid disaster from climate change without governments globally working to reduce emissions and backing green technology. He said there needs to be a 'constant 30-year push' from government and business to address the problem as business can't change infrastructure unless market signals are 'constant and very clear'. Gates says that 'consuming less' isn't the solution to solving the climate crisis. Political action and a change to carbon neutral solutions is more important than just asking people to 'use less', he said, adding governments should 'do the right thing'. He has faith in the ability of the market to solve part of the rising climate crisis, especially if consumers do their part in demanding green alternatives. 'If you buy an electric car, a hamburger made of a meat substitute, an electric heat pump for your home you are helping increase the production of these products and therefore helping drive prices down,' he told BBC News. Gates hasn't stopped living the billionaire lifestyle, he still travels by private jet and has nice houses - but he says he has changed 'how' he does it. His jets are now powered by biofuels made from plant products rather than fossil fuels which 'costs three times as much' but acts against his offset spending. 'I don't think getting rid of flying would make sense,' he said in the BBC interview. 'That type of brute force technique won't get us there.' The billionaire believes that instead the answer is to develop new fuels that are zero emissions - moving to green hydrogen or electricity to power a plane. He supports the idea of a green recovery from Covid-19 - with stimulus packages focused on solving the issues of climate change. Climate change and tackling the issue is a 'huge priority' for the world and Gates says leaders should feed on the 'moral conviction' young people have for the issue. Adding: 'Now we have to take that energy and make sure it's directed at the policies that will make a difference.' He told Bloomberg that there are stark choices for the world and that achieving the goal of reducing emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 it would be significant. He said 'It makes the Covid-19 vaccine look like nothing because of the number of people and activities and interventions required to transform the entire physical economy to reduce emissions as we need.' Gates says the current generation of young people care a lot about the issue and failing to achieve the goal of 50 per cent reduction would leave them very cynical. Achieving the goal would be something equivalent to ending World War II or stopping Nazism, Gates added in his Bloomberg interview.