Billionaire and noted climate activist Bill Gates made headlines last month when he released a piece seemingly rejecting his prior stances on global warming. In the memo, which was titled “Three tough truths about climate,” Gates declared that climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” and that “the doomsday outlook is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals.”
The Left was immediately enraged, with the scientific community (which has been thoroughly captured by progressives) claiming he was making “straw man” arguments. Meanwhile, some on the Right took a victory lap, with President Donald Trump declaring MAGA had “won the War on the Climate Change Hoax.”
But both sides failed to notice a crucial point. In the memo, Gates actually does not reverse his belief that the climate is changing or that it’s a matter that needs urgent attention. The memo is far more nuanced and interesting than that. But he does express a key change in his thinking when it comes to how climate change should be addressed: He believes the market will have to do it instead of the government.
As one of the few true capitalists left in this country, Gates has had an important change of heart, and it is one of the most encouraging things I’ve read in a while. Let’s dissect.
In the piece, Gates starts off by saying that “innovation will allow us to drive emissions down much further,” and he says the hyper-focus on emissions is “diverting resources from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world.” He goes on to say that climate activists need to “refocus on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change: improving lives.”
Climate change itself was never a hoax, but the “solutions” pushed by the Left for decades were certainly a Trojan horse meant to move economies steadily toward collectivism. The broader climate activist community has refused to grapple with the real results of its green energy and regulatory agenda, which plainly show these efforts reduce energy production, drive up prices, and put lives in immediate danger (thanks to the blackouts and lack of access to air conditioning these conditions create).
Gates acknowledges this fact and points out that the global poor are the most affected by it, noting that climate change does not pose an immediate threat to them, but poverty and disease do. He also admits that the current climate agenda has failed, stating, “We are going to fall far short of the world’s climate goals. One reason is that the world’s demand for energy is going up — more than doubling by 2050.”
He’s not wrong about that at all. But unlike most in his camp, he seems to have a grasp on Economics 101. He goes on to say, “From the standpoint of improving lives, using more energy is a good thing, because it’s so closely correlated with economic growth …. More energy use is a key part of prosperity.”
He then adds a call for innovation.
“Although wind and solar have gotten cheaper and better, we don’t yet have all the tools we need to meet the growing demand for energy without increasing carbon emissions,” Gates writes. “But we will have the tools we need if we focus on innovation.”
He also points out that the greatest emissions reduction has already come from such innovation — not regulations, not environmental reviews, not brushing your teeth in the shower.
What Gates is calling for is an unleashing of the doers, the builders, and the thinkers, all of whom hold the keys to creating the technology and infrastructure we need to address climate concerns while also unleashing economic growth and energy abundance. The government is not capable of doing that, but it is what’s in the way of it.
BILL GATES GETS REAL ON CLIMATE AND LEAVES THE LEFT BEHIND
The top policy reform that has to take place in order for that to happen is our permitting system. Many had hoped Congress would pass a bill through the House by the end of this year, as both Republicans and Democrats increasingly recognize our permitting system as the existential threat that it is. The system is a web of bureaucracy, driving up production costs and stagnating innovation — often by over a decade. It’s inexcusable, a boot on the neck of the market, and a blockade on the one access point that could deliver both economic relief and clean energy to the masses.
Congress members need to open the government up and get back to work, and permitting reform must be top of their agenda when they do. If Bill Gates’s new viewpoint is indicative of public sentiment, they’re going to have a robust coalition meeting them when they come back.
Hannah Cox (@HannahDCox) is the president and co-founder of BASEDPolitics and a fellow for the White Coat Waste Project.