New York, USA (CU)_ Bill Gates intends to team up with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to fight against the climate crisis. The co-founder of Microsoft said that the climate crisis could surpass the current pandemic deaths and global impacts over time. Earlier this month, he published his book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”. In an interview, Gates said, “The deaths will just go up over time as you get more heat waves, forest fires and, most importantly, lose the ability to go outdoors and do farming anywhere near the equator”.
Bezos is committed to fighting climate change even more than Gates. Hence, Gates hopes they will work together to fund expensive early-stage renewable solutions to existing technologies. Gates uses the idea of a Green Premium in his book, the price difference between a conventional, carbon-emitting technology such as a gas-powered car and its green substitute, an electric car. People like Gates and Bezos will use their money to increase demand and push costs down to a level appropriate for everyone else, when the price of these emerging products is too high for ordinary customers or governments.
Gates said that, unlike pandemic, it is difficult to make people think about the threats of climate crisis now as it is decades away. He said, “It’s a real test of humanity to invest in advance for problems that come later”. Gates said, “The idea of how you create a demand side for these green products, even in the early stage where their green premium is very high, that’s something I’ve realized is one of the missing pieces. We want to bring companies and governments in on that but having a strong base of philanthropic capital to get it started would be fantastic.”
Gates who is a long-time fan of fast-food burger has moved half his patty intake to plant-based items such as Impossible Burger and Beyond Beef. He said that much of his early Microsoft job was fueled by the nearby Burgermaster and he has often been pictured waiting in line at Seattle’s Dick’s Burgers. He expects that to increase as they improve further, but he doesn’t fully omit beef. He said, “Some people are trying to change the cow’s diet or capture the methane, so you know I don’t want to count the cow out”.
