Video does not show Bill Gates changing his mind about clean energy
Video does not show Bill Gates changing his mind about clean energy
(Reuters) - Social media users are sharing a clip from an interview with Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and claiming that it shows him opposing climate change efforts.
Examples can be seen ( here ) and (here )
The text in the post reads: “Back in 2018 when Bill Gates would still admit the truth about “clean energy” madness: “Whenever we came up with this term ‘clean energy,’ I think it screwed up people’s minds!”.
The clip shows an interview (clip begins at 8:37 youtu.be/d1EB1zsxW0k?t=517 ) with Gates by Arun Majumdar, the dean of Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, at Stanford University’s Global Energy Forum on Nov. 2, 2018 (here , here ).
The description of the original video reads: “Declining prices for devices to generate and store renewable energy are great, but not nearly enough to save the world from climate change, according to Bill Gates. Gates talked about overly optimistic thinking, natural gas, a carbon tax and the responsibilities of developing economies vs. developed economies. He was hopeful, however, that the power of research and innovation could meet rising energy demand globally while addressing climate change and other environmental challenges.”
In the video, Majumdar asks Gates if the decrease in wind and solar renewables and battery costs are enough, to which Gates responds that it is “so disappointing” because more needs to be done to address greenhouse gas emissions.
Gates says that electricity accounts for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions and that other sources of emissions should also be considered such as the production of steel, fertilizer, cement, plastic, and airplanes.
While he is critical of this, it is clear from the rest of the video that he is supportive of these efforts.
Since this interview, Gates has continued to work on climate change as reported (here , here , here ).
VERDICT
Missing context. The clip has been taken out of context to falsely suggest that Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is against efforts to address climate change.
