Bill Gates expresses concern, doubts on attainability of 1.5 degrees global warming limit

• Gates commented on global warming in an interview with the UK-based think tank Policy Exchange

• He was speaking during the first week of the COP26 summit in Glasgow

Microsoft Corp founder and philanthropist Bill Gates expressed his doubts on whether the world will be able to keep a check on global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and reminded of how much work needs to be done if climate goals are to be met.

Gates’ comments on global warming, made during the first week of the COP26, a United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, a follow-up of the Paris Agreement, which aims to “limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.”

Also Read: Convening for a greener future - COP26 and its relevance

Keeping a check on global warming

In an excerpt of his interview, which was conducted by U.K. lawmaker Jeremy Hunt for the think tank Policy Exchange, the billionaire seemed skeptical about whether the goal could be met.

“It’s all a matter of degrees, so to speak. That is, you know, hitting 2.5 is better than hitting 3, hitting 2 is better than hitting 2.5,” he said. “1.5 … will be very difficult; I doubt that we’ll be able to achieve that.”

The COP26 summit, delayed a year by the coronavirus pandemic, comes six years after the landmark Paris accord was signed by nearly 200 countries.

The 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold, which is also known as a tipping point, is a vital climate target set during the Paris Agreement in 2015, beyond which the climate change is expected to be irreversible.

The dilemma

Gates also said there was “no comparable feat that mankind has ever achieved to what we need to do for climate change,” but, also acknowledged that mankind was “much richer today, far more knowledgeable today — we do have the digital tools that enable us to work on these things.”

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Expanding on his point, he said, “What happened with solar panels, where they were very expensive and now they’re cheap, or lithium ion batteries, we need to do that for about six other technologies,” and mentioned about green steel, cheap hydrogen and offshore wind.

Gates said lots of money would be required and that there were “many paths of innovation.” This innovation would have to be rapid, he added.

Picture credit: CNBC