Review by David Welbourn
I have a bookcase full of an eclectic mix of reading – predominantly insights into business written by gurus from the world’s top business schools. For them, a book is a rite of passage.
I can count on one hand (and name) those authors whose work cuts through confusion, complexity and conflicting interpretation, bringing clarity and a new profound way of cutting through the unknown. Bill Gates’ book on the climate emergency joins that elite group. Yes, he has all the connections with power in both business and politics, and the ability to bring together great minds in international think tanks, but there is an authenticity and integrity in the writing, demonstrating that the clarity conjured out of the simmering cauldron of knowledge snippets is his own.
He does not pull any punches in describing the harsh reality confronting the planet if we fail to heed the wake-up call and take urgent and incisive action. He patiently outlines a methodology he has already perfected in his work at the Bill and Melinda foundation, in which the intractable problems of malaria and similar diseases have been addressed. Superficially it is a simple process.
First characterise the issue and quantify it, then break it out into contributing components. Assess the impact of each component and how much improvement has to be made to reach the desired outcome, and then seek solutions that can close the gap. Many of those gaps already have potential solutions, but at a premium cost, whilst others need research and new technical breakthroughs to close the gap. Bring all this together to focus on the steps required to tackle the affordability gap, target how and where to invest in innovation that promises to close the knowledge gap, the affordability gap, and most frequently, the behaviour gap. The latter requires incentives in public policy, taxation, regulation and government leadership.
Nowhere does he claim that it is easy, but his patient dissection of the problem and synthesis of potential solutions inspires hope. Running through his argument is an unexpectedly high ethical and moral stance. He is clear that poorer nations must be supported to reach standards of life comparable with those in the richer nations, and frequently refers to the risks that local actions may well prevent global solutions. He calls for the richer nations to ensure that they cut their own carbon footprint deeper than net-zero, whilst also supporting emerging economies to continue to grow in a sustainable way, closing the development and economic gaps.
Some might be dissuaded by the US focus in many of his examples, but he illustrates them to allow parallels to be understood within differing national contexts. Some may be dissuaded by the business focus which assumes global economic growth as the only destination in town – there is plenty of other evidence that focus on economic growth always creates casualties in those with weaker voices, but time and again, he reminds us of the threat to the deprived and disadvantaged. Others might challenge the hypocrisy of someone with such a high personal carbon footprint speaking about climate action, but he takes that on the chin.
I conclude with his own words (p51)
To sum up: we need to accomplish something gigantic we have never done before, much faster than we have ever done anything similar. To do it, we need lots of breakthroughs in science and engineering. We need to build a consensus that doesn’t exits and create public policies to push a transition that would not happen otherwise. We need the energy system to stop doing all the things we don’t like and keep doing all the things we do like – in other words, to change completely and also stay the same.
But don’t despair. We can do this. There are lots of ideas out there…