Bill Gates Tempers Climate Alarm, Refocuses Priorities

Bill Gates is recasting his climate message, urging an end to “doomsday” rhetoric in a memo released Tuesday. The Microsoft co-founder, who has spent billions on climate efforts, argues that while warming will bring serious harm—especially to the poorest countries—it won’t spell humanity’s demise, and attention should shift to improving lives in the developing world. The memo, arriving four years after his book on avoiding a climate disaster, precedes next week’s COP30 in Belém, Brazil; Gates, who turned 70 on Tuesday, will not attend. He declined comment, but his decade-long investments in clean energy and adaptation continue.