London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Bill Gates: Failure to achieve zero net emissions by 2050 will cause migration worse than Syrian crisis

Bill Gates: Failure to achieve zero net emissions by 2050 will cause migration worse than Syrian crisis

Microsoft co-founder says he is offsetting his carbon emissions

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates warned that there will be dire consequences if the world does not achieve zero net carbon emissions by the year 2050.

In his new book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” Gates says that it is imperative that the world go from the current 51 billion tons of emissions to zero within the next 30 years to avoid catastrophe.

“The migration that we saw out of Syria for their civil war, which was somewhat weather dependent, we’re going to have 10 times as much migration because the equatorial areas will become unlivable," Gates told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, warning what will happen if the goal is not reached. "We won't be able to farm or go outside during the summer. Wildfires, even the farming productivity in the south of the U.S. – the droughts – will reduce productivity in the area dramatically."

Gates went on to say that the loss of life would be greater than even the worst part of the coronavirus pandemic.

"The instability overall will be five times as many deaths at the peak of the pandemic and going up every year," he said.

While 2050 is Gates' cutoff point, he said this is really just a matter of "degree."

"If we wait 10 more years it's not as bad as if we wait 20 or we wait 30, because the temperature just keeps going up," he said. Gates said he is looking at 2050 because it "happens to be the soonest realistic date for the world to change all of these sorts of emissions."

Gates defended himself against criticisms from the left and right. Those on the left claim that he is not going far enough, and that he needs to support the Green New Deal, with efforts to reduce net emissions to zero by 2030.

"It's completely unrealistic," Gates said about the 2030 goal, saying that it will take at least 30 years to accomplish this.

Gates has also gotten flack for talking about the need to reduce emissions while he himself has a tremendous carbon footprint by living in a large home and flying on a private jet. He said his other actions make up for this.

"I am offsetting my carbon emissions by buying clean aviation fuel, and funding carbon capture and funding low-cost housing projects to use electricity instead of natural gas," Gates said. He noted how expensive these efforts have been and said those costs must be driven down.

Gates, an accomplished entrepreneur who created tens of thousands of jobs and established the U.S. as a leader in tech throughout the world, said that while a shift toward green energy will be necessary, it will result in significant job growth for engineers.


"The engineering skillsets, the things that those workers do will be important. In fact, we're going to have to almost triple the size of the electric grid and build all that transmission," Gates said. "And so it's not like there's going to be a shortage of jobs overall, it's just balancing to make sure that each community fits into the plan."

Gates also pushed back against a claim from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who said that the woes facing the state’s power grid during their winter storm is the result of failures of green energy, particularly wind.

“That’s not at all true,” Gates said, saying that the power shortage was the result of the failure to weatherize power systems. He said that while wind turbines are part of this, it is possible to weatherize them, as evidenced by their use in North Dakota and Alaska.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×