Overview
- Publishing days before the Belém summit, Gates writes that climate change will have grave impacts yet will not cause human extinction, especially stressing risks for the poorest.
- He urges donors and policymakers to prioritize energy access, healthcare and resilient agriculture, to drive down the cost of clean technologies, and to rigorously fund what saves and improves lives.
- Gates will not attend COP30, and he frames the meeting as a chance to shift strategies toward interventions that protect people already living with warming.
- Scientists and climate advocates criticize the memo as a false choice between mitigation and well‑being, pointing to new Lancet Countdown and State of the Climate findings of record‑worsening indicators and large climate‑related mortality.
- The debate unfolds as the U.S. imposes steep cuts to foreign aid programs, including those tied to USAID and Gavi, while Gates reallocates philanthropy toward health and poverty work and pares back some Breakthrough Energy policy activity.