The Jaipur Literature Festival hosted business magnate, technologist and philanthropist Bill Gates, where he spoke on the perils of climate change in conversation with Alok Sharma, President of the COP26 Climate Conference. The session began with an introduction to Gates’ mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 51 million tons to zero by 2050, and about his perfectly timed book, ‘The Solutions We Have And The Breakthroughs We Need’.
Festival Producer, Sanjoy K. Roy, described the book as a practical guide “to avoid a climate catastrophe, with the help of experts in the field of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science and finance.”
- Climate change is too big of a problem: Speaking about US President Biden and his Administration prioritising climate change and enlisting climate activists to help create policies, Gates said climate change is too big of a problem and it cannot be tackled without governments driving this.
2. Younger generation should be credited: Applauding and encouraging the youth on their continued efforts, Bill Gates said, “I think we can give the younger generation credit that in this political round, it [climate] was more discussed, by far, than at any time in our history.”
3. Political parties should prioritise the issue: Speaking about the need for political parties to prioritise this issue, he said “We want climate to be a bi-partisan issue because we’ve got to cap thirty years of progress, not just four years.”
4. Gate’s admiration for Greta: When asked for advice as to how young people can help, he responded, “I am not an expert on advocacy. I have incredible admiration for people like Greta [Thunberg]… We need that attention to intensify and stay very, very high for all thirty years. You know different parties may be in power in different countries and yet, we can’t have them checking out of this cause.”
5. Accelerating innovation: Highlighting the vital and urgent need for innovation in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, he said, “It’s very novel for the world to need innovation by a deadline. Normally we just let innovation go and some areas go better than we expect and some are much harder. And yet, now by 2050, if we don’t get to zero, the temperature rise will be so damaging that life will actually get worse for humans and most of the natural ecosystems. So, you have to think, how can you accelerate innovation?”
6. Gates mentions PM Narendra Modi twice: Gates mentioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name twice as having strongly supported reduced emissions – he (PM Modi) “actually named this initiative Mission Innovation.”
7. India is pragmatic: Gates explained that “in terms of future emissions and future suffering, India is paradigmatic. If we don’t help them and get them involved, then this whole thing doesn’t go well.” A key point that he emphasised was that “we have to have co-operation, because no matter where the emissions take place, it affects the entire world.”