Bill Gates: Goal of eliminating emissions by 2030 ‘completely unrealistic’

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said on Sunday that he considers efforts to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 “completely unrealistic.”

Host Chris Wallace asked Gates on “Fox News Sunday” how he responded to critics on his left who say the solutions he advocates are insufficient when compared to reaching zero emissions over the next decade.

“It’s completely unrealistic to think we could eliminate emissions by 2030,” Gates replied, adding that “not seeing that this problem is hard will be part of the difficulty of getting engaged in it.”

Gates went on to warn worsening climate issues would affect other geopolitical factors. 

“The migration that we saw out of Syria for their civil war was somewhat weather-dependent,” he said. “We’re going to have 10 times as much migration because the equatorial areas will become unlivable, you won’t be able to farm or go outside during the summer.”

“It’s all a matter of degree,” he added. “If we wait 10 more years it’s not as bad as if we wait 20 or you wait 30 because the temperature just keeps going up.”

Wallace also asked Gates about his view of the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, to which Gates responded, “this is giving us light at the end of the tunnel” but “we do need to get the logistics right.”

“I’m hopeful that we’re going to get more schools reopened, by the time we get to the fall we should avoid the wait there because the level of vaccination will be very high,” he added.

Gates’s remarks come as the U.S. nears the milestone of 500,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest of any country by far. The nation has also seen declining virus cases and over 10 percent of the country receiving at least their first dose of the vaccine.