Asked in interviews this week about the odds of achieving his goals of fighting climate change in light of the shift in political winds, Gates struck an optimistic tone.
Bill Gates just launched a $1 billion investment fund dedicated to clean-energy miracles that could slow global climate change.
The administration of President-elect Donald Trump, meanwhile, will be led by a man who has doubts that humans contribute to the warming climate in the first place.
The two men spoke on the phone briefly a couple of weeks ago, the latest unlikely pairing in the month since Trump’s election. Asked in interviews this week about the odds of achieving his goals in light of the shift in political winds, Gates struck an optimistic tone.
“It will be interesting to see what we get out of this administration,” Gates told Recode. “I’m hopeful that some of the innovation things, including in energy, but in basic science (also), that we can even strengthen the bipartisan support.”
Still, Gates said in an interview with Bloomberg that cuts in federal support for renewable energy are likely under the new administration. “That is unfortunate,” he said.
Gates, since stepping down from Microsoft, has tried to bring scientific and data-driven approaches to bear on global problems like infectious disease, extreme poverty and the effects of climate change. He has said governments play a key role in funding the research that can make solutions to those problems possible.
Trump has expressed skepticism that climate change is caused by humans, at one point calling it a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to make American manufacturing less competitive. He has more recently said he has an “open mind” on climate science.
Gates told CNBC that the call with Trump was the first time they had spoken, but that the two had mutual friends. On Tuesday, he stopped by Trump Tower in New York for a meeting with the president-elect.
His comments this week came in interviews tied to the launch of a new clean-energy fund.
Called Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the initiative counts Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and natural-gas-trading billionaire John Arnold among its 20 board members.
The group plans to target investment in technologies with the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, with a particular focus on scientifically promising options that might require patience and could benefit from a global network of wealthy investors.
The announcement comes about a year after Gates announced an energy-investment initiative, dubbed the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, on the sidelines of major global climate talks taking place in Paris. At the time, he said innovation, and partnership between private investors and government-led research, was key to achieving an “energy miracle.”