Overview
- Speaking at Caltech, Bill Gates said resources are finite and confirmed he has shifted some philanthropic focus from cutting emissions toward reducing disease and malnutrition.
- Gates reiterated that climate change is a serious problem and said preventing each tenth of a degree of warming is beneficial, rejecting claims he abandoned climate action.
- Climate scientists, including Katharine Hayhoe, Michael E. Mann and Daniel Swain, criticized his memo as a straw man and a false dichotomy that separates poverty and health from warming impacts.
- Skeptics celebrated the memo and President Donald Trump falsely cast it as Gates conceding climate change is a hoax, which Gates called a misreading.
- The memo has become a pre‑COP30 flashpoint over priorities, with warnings that its framing could weaken mitigation finance as negotiators weigh development, adaptation and technology investments.