Gates rejects calls to divest from fossil fuels, invests in green energy technology
Alex Brown
... Gates dismissed the calls of the fossil fuel divestment movement – which has already persuaded more than 220 institutions worldwide to divest – on the basis that it would have little impact.
Instead he said there was an urgent need for “high risk” investments in breakthrough technologies. He said that a “miracle” on the level of the invention of the automobile was necessary to avoid a climate catastrophe and that current renewables are not yet close to being able to meet projected energy needs by 2030.
Gates told the Financial Times that the only way current technology could reduce global emissions is at “a beyond astronomical cost” and that innovation is the only way to reach a positive scenario. ...
Gates’ announcement comes as Christiana Figueres, who is leading the UN’s climate change negotiations, has written to the chief executives of six leading oil and gas companies asking them to show more ambition and thanking them for supporting December’s landmark climate change conference in December.
Her letter is a response to a call from the heads of the energy companies – Shell, BP, Eni, Statoil, Total and the BG group – to make gas and a strong carbon price a core part of global efforts to tackle climate change.