| | Hello and welcome to Future Earth, where this week I'm joining you from the UN's COP28 climate summit in Dubai, UAE. The first week of the conference has been a rollercoaster, including the launch of a long-awaited loss and damage fund, and a sizeable share of controversy for its oil-producing host. But I wanted to hear where global innovators think we should be putting our time, money and effort. So I put some big-picture questions to Bill Gates, who has grand plans for an ancient technology: the humble seed. Also this week, can you name the meat-producing European nation going plant-based? And a kangaroo with a talent for air guitar. |
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| | | CLIMATE CONVERSATION | | The climate challenge on Bill Gates' mind |  | | Climate adaptation is top of mind for Bill Gates, as he tells me about crucial climate resilient crops (Credit: BBC) |
| While some billionaires, such as Elon Musk and Richard Branson, look to the heavens in a race to space, Bill Gates has set his gaze on something closer to home – the ground beneath our feet.
I'm sitting across from him on a scorching afternoon at the COP28 UN climate conference in Dubai, UAE. Although he made his name, and fortune, at the forefront of the computing revolution, today his face lights up when discussing a more humble bit of technology – seeds.
"I consider seeds that can deal with high temperature or seeds that are more productive," Gates tells me. "That's pretty whizz-bang stuff."
Gates has always been a problem solver – from helping put a personal computer in your home while at Microsoft, to battling tropical diseases like malaria through his philanthropic activities. He's come to COP28, along with some 97,000 other attendees to discuss, and hopefully agree, on definitive action to tackle climate change.
His focus is agriculture – specifically, helping farmers in developing nations adapt to the effects of our warming planet, such as more droughts, floods, heatwaves and pests. Climate change threatens to undo much of the progressmade by modern agriculture in the fight against hunger and malnutrition.
"We need to deal with the challenge that the weather is tougher," Gates says. Most farmers in the poorest nations don't have access to irrigation, relying on seasonal rains to water their crops. "And so that's where the most suffering from climate [change] will be unless we improve the inputs, including the seeds."
This will mean relying not only on varieties of crops that have been bred to be hardier, more disease resistant and able to grow with less water, but also on a broader range of food plants overall. Many currently underused crops such as sorghum and cassava are important foods in parts of Africa. They are well adapted to difficult growing conditions, and Gates believes they could make a bigger contribution overall to global diets.
And Gates is not the only person hoping to bolster our food system against climate change. From Svalbard to Peru, scientists and farmers are working together to preserve and develop crops that could play a far bigger part in our diets in the future. | | Climate inequality | To me, it seems part of Gates' mission comes from a sense that as one of the richest people in the world, he has a duty to help some of the poorest. Several times throughout our interview, overlooking the gleaming Dubai conference centre grounds, he returns to the issue of climate justice.
"I do think those who are the luckiest – and I'm certainly in that group – we owe a lot to society." Africa, for example, contributes less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and industry. "And yet, that's where the negative impacts will be the greatest." |  | | Amidst the gleaming surroundings of COP28, Bill Gates wanted to talk about climate inequality (Credit: Getty Images) |
| Gates has already put billions of dollars towards climate innovations to develop new ways to mitigate emissions. But now, with the effects of the climate crisis intensifying, he's pushing resources towards adaptation.
In the opening days of COP28, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $100m (£80m) investment to develop agricultural innovations to help small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. They have also agreed to collaborate with the European Commission to help improve soil health in sub-Saharan Africa. | | Is 1.5C alive? | Despite many of the gloomy forecasts about the expected outcomes from COP28, Gates is an optimist when it comes to climate change. And I can tell he believes deeply in the power of innovation to stave off the worst effects of climate change. But he's also a realist.
For instance, I ask him what gives him hope that we can limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. He tells me, matter-of-factly, that he thinks the goal is out of reach. With so many leaders at COP28 still pushing hard for a 1.5C limit, Gates' outlook can come as a surprise. | "Well, 1.5C is not likely to be achieved. The reduction you need for that is quite dramatic." Gates reflects that the worst scenarios of warming – for instance, an extremely dangerous 4C – are now "off the table" because of commitments to climate action. The crucial thing is to focus on every incremental change we can make. "Wherever we end up, the less warming, the better."
Many here at COP28 continue to keep the 1.5C goal at the centre of their action, pressing delegates and negotiators for an agreement to phase out fossil fuels. If this climate conference finally brings a breakthrough that the previous summits have struggled to achieve, then maybe Gates will be wrong. | But in the meantime, he'll be working to improve the lives of those on the frontlines of climate change. One seed at a time.
Watch my full interview with Bill Gates here. |
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| | | | | NUMBER OF THE WEEK | | $400 million | | The contributions made in the first few hours after a deal on a much-anticipated loss and damage fund was announced at COP28. The finance is intended to help vulnerable nations repair the impacts of climate change. Read the BBC News story here. |
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| | | | TAKE A MOMENT | | Native Americans are reclaiming energy | | Meet the indigenous tribes who are taking the renewable energy transition into their own hands. | |
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| | | CLIMATE QUIZ | | As world leaders sign a declaration to address the role of food and agriculture in climate change at COP28, one European nation is taking especially large strides. The country has a world-first national plan to encourage plant-based eating. It's also the European country where citizens are least interested in cutting back on meat. Which is it? | | A. France | | B. Poland | | C. Denmark | | Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for the answer. | |
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| | THE BIG PICTURE | | How climate change catalyses disease |  | | In the far north, permanently frozen ground, or permafrost, locks away deadly diseases from the distant past (Credit: Getty Images) |
| | This week saw the very first dedicated "health day" at a UN climate summit, included in recognition of the deep links between climate and human health. As temperatures increase, so do the prevalence and intensity of heat-related illnesses. But it doesn't stop there. A warming climate fuels disease in many ways – not least unlocking ancient viruses lying dormant in the Arctic permafrost as it thaws. Read an extract from Fevered Planet: How Diseases Emerge When We Harm Nature, by the late John Vidal, former environment editor of The Guardian newspaper in the UK. | |
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| | | | | AND FINALLY... | | If you're feeling the world of climate news is full-on this week, you're not alone. Perhaps that's why it's an especially welcome time to consider a photography competition that celebrates wonders of the natural world – and makes us laugh. Indignant greenfinches, a prancing smooth-coated otter, an inelegant heron and a remarkably rotund ptarmigan all performed with aplomb in this year's Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. But in the end it was an air-guitar-strumming kangaroo who stole the show. |
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