Despite rising temperatures worldwide, unprecedented natural disasters, and the climate refugees they’ll create, Bill Gates remains a climate optimist. Perhaps this is buoyed by his own role in fighting climate change. Not only has he founded the climate investment firm Breakthrough Energy, he’s also donated millions through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and he personally cuts a $10 million check each year to carbon capture company Climeworks to offset his own carbon emissions. So when he speaks on climate, people tend to listen, and he had a lot of thoughts for the “Climate Week” as the United Nations gathered for a General Assembly in New York City.
“I’m the person who’s doing the most on climate in terms of the innovation and in how we can square multiple goals,” Gates said during an onstage interview at the New York Times’ Climate Forward Summit.
