Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said that ending the coronavirus pandemic is nothing in comparison to climate change, BBC reported.

Speaking about both the crises, Gates stated that solving the climate crisis would be “the most amazing thing humanity has ever done.” By comparison, stopping the pandemic is “very very easy.”

During an interview with the BBC where he talked about his new book ‘How to Avoid a Climate Disaster’, Gates said, “We’ve never made a transition like we’re talking about doing in the next 30 years. There is no precedent for this. Fifty-one billion is how many tonnes of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere each year. Zero is where we need to get to.”

He further mentioned that renewable sources, including wind and solar, can help the world decarbonize electricity. However, that’s less than 30 per cent of total emissions.

He believes that the world needs to decarbonize the other 70 per cent of the world economy – steel, cement, transport systems, fertilizer production among many others. Gates intends to zero in on the technology to solve the climate crisis.

According to Gates, the answer to this will be an innovation effort on a scale the world has never seen before and this has to start with governments.

He noted that the governments need to have price signals to ask the private sector to produce green products.

He noted that this mammoth task requires a huge investment by governments in research and development. And, the price of this can only be brought down by employing technology and augmenting new methods of producing goods.

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