How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
by Bill Gates
Rating: 4.0 / 5 · Read · Finished 2023-10-26
Gates’ goal: get to net zero emissions by 2050. How? Replace all emitting technologies with non-emitting alternatives. Notably, we should not try to reduce our consumption. Why not? (1) We need to get to zero emissions, and you can’t do that by reducing consumption unless you reduce consumption to zero. (2) There are still many poor countries that will and should get richer and increase their consumption to be on par with the U.S.
Gates structures the book by dividing the world’s 50 billion tons of emissions per year into categories
- Electricity
- Manufacturing
- Agriculture
- Transportation
- Heating and cooling
For each category, he lists zero carbon alternative technologies and their “green premium” - what % more expensive is the zero carbon alternative compared to the status quo? When the green premium is too high, he recommends research toward breakthroughs that will lower it. When it is only a little high, he recommends policies to speed its adoption.