Bill Gates expresses his gratitude in a speech on June 23, 2025 in Berlin, where he was awarded the Walther Rathenau Prize for his efforts to support public health systems around the world, PHOTO: Jörg Carstensen / AFP / Profimedia Images
Billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates urged world leaders on Tuesday ahead of the COP30 climate conference to take measures to adapt to extreme weather events and focus on improving health systems rather than meeting temperature reduction targets, Reuters reports.
COP30 will take place in Brazil from November 10 to 21 in the port city of Belem, located in the lower Amazon region. Countries are to submit updated national climate commitments and assess progress on renewable energy targets set at previous summits.
The world has spent the last decade working towards the goals of the Paris Agreement. It aimed to limit global warming to significantly below 2 degrees Celsius by the middle of the century – a goal that remains far from being achieved.
While climate change is serious, it “doesn't mean the end of civilization,” Gates wrote on his personal blog. He stated that rather than focusing on temperature as the main indicator of progress in climate efforts, humanity should strengthen its climate resilience by strengthening health and prosperity.
He called for a shift in perspective towards improving human well-being – especially in vulnerable regions – by investing in energy access, healthcare and agricultural resilience.
These areas, he argued, offer more equitable benefits than temperature targets and should be central to the climate strategies discussed at COP30. His comments come months after the Microsoft co-founder revealed that he plans to bequeath the majority of his fortune to foundations that support health and education systems in Africa.
Bill Gates has invested billions in clean energy
Gates, who has invested billions of dollars to accelerate clean-tech innovation through Breakthrough Energy, his climate-focused investment network, also challenged policymakers and donors to scrutinize whether climate aid is being spent effectively.
He urged them to use data to maximize impact and called on investors to support companies developing high-impact clean technologies so they can reduce costs faster.
Gates said the number of direct deaths from natural disasters has fallen by 90 percent over the past century to 40,000–50,000 annually, largely due to more effective warning systems and more resilient infrastructure.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) last week urged countries to implement disaster warning systems to protect populations from extreme weather events.
The WMO said that over the past five decades, weather, water and climate-related phenomena have killed more than 2 million people, with 90 percent of those deaths occurring in developing countries.
