Zee Media Bureau/Rd. Alexander
The philanthropist Bill Gates is investing USD 1 billion of his own money in clean energy technology over the next five years as he believes that many breakthroughs will take place during the period that will help solve climate change.
Through his company, the tech czar is already donating about USD 1 billion towards climate change. However, this donation comes from himself and not the company.
“..I plan to invest $1 billion in clean energy technology over the next five years. This will be a fairly big increase over the investments I am already making..” he said in his blog.
Explaining why he is investing so much on clean enery and climate change, the world's richest man said, it was to help the poor as they would be the ones to suffer the most due to climate change even though it is not their fault.
“I think this issue is especially important because, of all the people who will be affected by climate change, those in poor countries will suffer the most,” Gates wrote in the blog.
“Higher temperatures and less-predictable weather would hurt poor farmers, most of whom live on the edge and can be devastated by a single bad crop. Food supplies could decline. Hunger and malnutrition could rise. It would be a terrible injustice to let climate change undo any of the past half-century’s progress against poverty and disease—and doubly unfair because the people who will be hurt the most are the ones doing the least to cause the problem.” he wrote further.
He also believed that an affordable clean energy will help fight poverty.
Despite his USD 1 billion investment, he feels his contribution will matter much less than the decision that government will have to make.
“But when it comes to preventing the worst effects of climate change, the investments I make will matter much less than the choices that governments make,” he wrote.
