Either Gates sees the writing on the wall, or the money has dried up.

Bill Gates thinks climate change is a serious problem but it won’t be the end of civilization. He thinks scientific innovation will curb it, and it’s instead time for a “strategic pivot” in the global climate fight: from focusing on limiting rising temperatures to fighting poverty and preventing disease.

A doomsday outlook has led the climate community to focus too much on near-term goals to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that cause warming, diverting resources from the most effective things that can be done to improve life in a warming world, Gates said. In a memo released Tuesday, Gates said the world’s primary goal should instead be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions in the world’s poorest countries.

If given a choice between eradicating malaria and a tenth of a degree increase in warming, “I’ll let the temperature go up 0.1 degree to get rid of malaria. People don’t understand the suffering that exists today,” Gates told reporters during a roundtable discussion ahead of the release.

The Gates memo surfaces just one week ahead of the UN’s yearly climate conference, COP30, set in Belém, Brazil, where global leaders will convene. Gates, who celebrated his 70th birthday on Tuesday and has joined past summits, is sitting this one out. He offered no remarks on the memo.

For the last ten years, Gates has poured billions from his own wealth into initiatives aimed at slashing the greenhouse gases allegedly driving perilous planetary warming. His investments back renewable energy ventures and programs to help impoverished regions cope with climbing oceans, fiercer heat, wildfires, droughts, and escalating storms and floods.

Gates nails it: easing human suffering must trump vague CO₂ goals. Wiping out malaria rescues millions right now, dwarfing a mere 0.1°C temperature bump—technologies such as nuclear power and geoengineering can tackle warming without impoverishing the vulnerable. Fixating on climate siphons trillions away from fixable problems; real advancement comes from innovations that create prosperity for everyone.

This is similar to the outlook of Bjorn Lomborn and Michael Shellenberger which is much more rational than the climate alarmism of the nihilistic Left.

Not surprisingly, some on social media are already berating Gates and a climate denier (that is wrong). Bill Gates is a controversial public figure and time will tell if he’s serious and suspicion is warranted after Gates has been on the alarmist side for years.

ADDENDUM 10/29/2025: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now being investigated by the US Senate for funneling MILLIONS into Chinese PLA front groups, violating IRS Rules funding foreign governments. This is a good reason to shift away from the climate change scheme.