Fossil fuel divestment likely has no impact on reducing carbon emissions, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told the Financial Times on Sept. 17.
"Divestment, to date, probably has reduced about zero tonnes of emissions. It's not like you've capital-starved [the] people making steel and gasoline," Gates said. "I don't know the mechanism of action where divestment [keeps] emissions [from] going up every year."
Climate activists have worked to persuade investors to drop their fossil fuel stocks, but Gates contended that investors would be more effective if they put their money toward "disruptive technologies that slow carbon emissions and help people adapt to a warming world."
"When I'm taking billions of dollars and creating breakthrough energy ventures and funding only companies who, if they're successful, reduce greenhouse gases by 0.5%, then I actually do see a cause and effect type thing," Gates said.
The comments fly in the face of the position taken by U.S.-based climate group 350.org and other environmental organizations that have pushed the idea that divestment removes fossil fuel companies' social license to operate and helps the government to act more freely on climate issues.
But Gates and a climate-focused Goalkeepers report from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation released Sept. 17 argued that the world's efforts so far have not adequately addressed climate change and that the broader climate change debate needs to focus more on pursuing significant technological and policy breakthroughs.
Parts of the energy industry are attempting to adapt to increased pressure on an array of fronts to deal with emissions. For instance, fossil fuel industries are exploring lower-emissions technologies such as carbon capture and storage technology. Meanwhile, the U.S. LNG sector is working to position itself as having a role in bringing down greenhouse gases by supplanting coal as a fuel.
