Gates Package — page 1190

I was blown away by the enthusiasm and intense engagement in Glasgow, especially compared to the last major COP conference in 2015. Everywhere you looked, you saw leaders from around the world--including lots of government officials and CEOs--eager to make real commitments. The biggest change I saw compared to 2015 was the focus on innovation. There is now a broad understanding that innovation needs to be at the forefront of any plan to get to zero emissions by 2050. The private sector is playing a central and necessary role alongside governments and nonprofits. It was encouraging to hear leaders from various industries that need to be part of the transition--including shipping, mining, and financial services--talk about their practical plans to decarbonize and to support innovation. I spent a lot of time at the conference talking to people about how new green technologies need to be affordable enough for the whole world to use them. If we're going to scale the innovations that get us to zero, we need to reduce the cost difference between things that emit greenhouse gases and things that don't. I call this difference the Green Premium, and addressing it needs to be an essential part of any climate plan. I was also excited to see so much attention paid to adaptation. We will lose the global fight against poverty if we don't help the world's poorest adapt to climate change, especially subsistence farmers who rely on the food they grow to feed their families and are the most at risk. Even if the world hits its goal of net-zero by 2050, we'll still experience significant warming. That will create huge problems for people in low- and middle-income countries unless we take steps now to help them, such as developing new crops that are more productive and can withstand weather changes. In short, this conference made it clear that the world is engaged and making progress. The result was a number of important concrete steps, like new commitments to investing in clean technologies, pledges to cut methane emissions and end deforestation by the end of the decade, and the creation of a coalition that will help farmers adapt. None of this happened by accident. The improvements made over recent years are a testament to the activists, elected officials, business leaders, philanthropists, and engaged citizens fighting to move climate change up the global agenda. We still have a lot more work to do--even if every commitment made at the COP is fulfilled, we still won't hit our target of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees--and I hope the world builds on the progress made in Glasgow. But I'm optimistic that we have the momentum necessary to avoid a climate disaster.