Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates while speaking at the fifth Ramnath Goenka lecture on 'Creating an Equal World: Power of Innovation' said that the world is counting on India to address a significant part of the climate change problem.
The billionaire-philanthropist expressed his concerns over climate change and called for scientific innovations to address the issue. He also pointed out that it is one of the most challenging problems to solve as modern economies are based on energy intensity.
"It just gets worse somewhere slightly every year, but it's one of the hardest things to fix because modern economies throughout the globe are based on energy intensity and over 80 percent of this energy comes from burning hydrocarbons," Gates said at the event.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair and trustee emphasized the need for solutions that are not just cheap but also reliable while outlining that the challenge of climate change is “pretty incredible”.
The Microsoft co-founder says he finds challenges like climate change exciting while always seeing a chance for innovation. Gates said that young people can help solve the problem of climate change if they are made aware about the problem and enough capital is made available to them.
“Counting on India to play a central role”
Gates noted that India has a significant role to play in addressing climate change and asked the country to take the lead in developing innovative solutions to tackle climate change. The billionaire said that while the "global innovation boom" is tackling a lot of tough problems regarding climate change, the world is "counting on India to play a central role" in tackling the crisis.
"You have got 700 million young people, you have educational institutions, it just gets stronger. So we need innovation from the whole world, but a lot specifically from India… We are looking to India for a significant part of that so that we can overcome the world's great challenges," Gates added.
Gates also highlighted the 'injustice' that rich countries contribute most of the emissions causing heating, while middle and lower-income countries near the equator will suffer the most damage.
