Billionaire Bill Gates calls for climate strategy pivot ahead of COP30

Nearly a decade after nations rallied behind the Paris Agreement, the world remains far from meeting its temperature goals. As governments prepare for COP30, Bill Gates is urging a reset: measure progress not only by degrees avoided, but by lives improved.

In a recent reflection on climate priorities, Gates described global warming as a profound challenge but not a guarantee of societal collapse. He argued that a strategy centered on human welfare—health, prosperity, and resilience—can deliver faster, fairer results than a singular focus on temperature metrics.

His call to action places vulnerable communities at the heart of climate policy, recommending targeted investments that simultaneously cut emissions, build resilience, and reduce inequality. The priority areas he highlights include:

• Reliable, affordable energy for all: Expanding access to clean power and modern fuels to drive economic opportunity, reduce indoor air pollution, and replace high-emitting energy sources.
• Stronger health systems: Scaling up disease surveillance, cooling and clean water infrastructure, and heat-health action plans to protect people from climate-exacerbated health risks.
• Climate-smart agriculture: Supporting drought- and flood-tolerant crops, efficient irrigation, and resilient supply chains to stabilize food security under more volatile weather.

Gates argues that these interventions generate immediate, equitable benefits while also advancing long-term climate goals. He wants negotiators at COP30 to place such measures on equal footing with emissions pledges, creating a balanced agenda that marries mitigation with adaptation and development.

Backing this pivot, he called on governments, development banks, and philanthropies to scrutinize where climate dollars are going and to prioritize evidence-based spending. Better data, he said, should guide funding toward the highest-impact solutions and the communities that need them most.

He also pressed private investors to accelerate deployment of breakthrough technologies with the potential to slash costs and emissions at scale—from novel energy storage to low-carbon industrial processes. Gates, who has invested billions in clean-tech innovation through his climate venture network, emphasized that early support can speed commercialization and make solutions accessible to lower-income countries sooner.

Part of the case for a resilience-first lens comes from hard-won progress in disaster preparedness. Gates pointed to the dramatic decline in direct deaths from natural hazards over the past century—down roughly 90% to about 40,000–50,000 annually—thanks to improved early warning systems, emergency response, and sturdier infrastructure.

That trajectory is not guaranteed. The United Nations leadership and the World Meteorological Organization have urged countries to universalize early warning systems to protect populations from intensifying extremes. The WMO estimates that over the last five decades, weather-, water-, and climate-related disasters have claimed more than two million lives, with about 90% of those deaths occurring in developing nations. The numbers underscore both the success of preparedness measures where they exist and the urgency of bringing them to places still left unprotected.

Gates’s argument does not dismiss the need to cut emissions quickly. Rather, it insists that climate policy must deliver tangible improvements in daily life alongside decarbonization—especially where people are already enduring the harshest impacts. Framing progress around healthier communities, reliable energy, robust food systems, and safer cities could make climate action more politically durable and socially just.

As COP30 approaches, the proposal is clear: keep the pressure on to reduce greenhouse gases, but elevate the kind of investments that save lives now and build resilience for decades. With smarter spending, better data, and faster innovation, he contends, the world can narrow the gap between climate ambition and lived reality—and ensure that the benefits reach those who need them most.