IN CONVERSATION WITH BILL GATES
G’S SCIENCE AND Environment editor, Karen McGhee, was invited to join an online forum of Asia-Pacific journalists in a conversation with Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates (pictured right) Among the questions posed were whether the election of US President Joe Biden and the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow this November (COP26) will place extra pressure on Australia to improve our climate strategy, now widely acknowledged as lagging behind other industrialised nations that have committed to zero net emissions by mid-century. Bill emphasised the need for effective funding for both carbon emissions mitigation and research and development that would lead to innovative new technologies and clean green energy production. His own research organisation is currently engaged in a project to develop fourth-generation nuclear power, and he also spoke of the potential of green hydrogen for nations such as Australia. Karen asked Bill about the Great Barrier Reef and whether we will reach a point where large vulnerable ecosystems like it are so badly damaged that saving them is not the best use of limited funds. Bill agreed that some current reef rescue projects lack scalability and that we haven’t historically been very good at modelling natural ecosystems. He encouraged continued research that might lead to beneficial interventions, but felt that, right now, we really don’t have the answers.
