A We Don’t Have Time investigation reveals how the world’s most influential philanthropist quietly changed his climate strategy, funded a climate-delay think tank, and timed his public message to overshadow the UN Secretary-General’s most urgent warning to date.
Just over a week before world leaders gathered in Belém for COP30, Bill Gates dropped a letter that stunned the climate community and shifted the global conversation overnight.
In “A New Approach for the World’s Climate Strategy”, the Microsoft founder urged the world to judge climate progress not by emissions or degrees of warming, but by how well it “improves lives.” He called for a pivot toward adaptation, health, and affordable energy.
Few would argue against that. Helping the world’s poorest people and building resilience are essential parts of climate action.
But scientists stress that humanity no longer has the luxury of choosing between reducing emissions and helping people adapt. Both must happen at full speed, together. That’s precisely why Gates’s new framing alarms many experts: it risks turning a “both-and” crisis into an “either-or” debate.
Gates’s philanthropic record in health and energy innovation remains vast, but critics say his new framing risks legitimizing climate delay arguments long used to stall action. To be clear, Gates still backs clean-energy breakthroughs through his Breakthrough Energy ventures.
Yet his latest message — and the timing of his quiet pullbacks — has unsettled even longtime allies. Gates insists he hasn’t quit climate action. The day he axed Breakthrough Energy’s policy teams, his spokeswoman told The New York Times, March 12th: “Bill Gates remains as committed as ever to advancing the clean-energy innovations needed to address climate change… His work in this area will continue.”
Eight months later, however, the landscape looked very different:
- No new multibillion-dollar fund after the $839 million Fund III raise reported in 2024 (SEC filing).
- Grant-making frozen (Heatmap News, 14 Feb 2025).
- Entire U.S. and European policy teams dissolved because, per The New York Times, “it was not likely to have a significant effect in Washington” under Trump.
Scientists now call it the quietest “commitment” in climate history.
The message that eclipsed the UN
On October 28, 2025, the very same day that UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned humanity had “failed to ensure we remain below 1.5 degrees” and faced “devastating consequences”, Bill Gates released his own climate letter where he shifts the global narrative from scientific urgency to “practical optimism.”
By sunset, global headlines weren’t leading with the UN Secretary-General’s plea. They were leading with the billionaire’s “practical optimism”, drowning out the science before world leaders even boarded planes to Belém.
As long time US climate advocate Bill McKibben observed:
https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/climate-gates
“… it’s been treated as such important news by so many outlets—far more, say, than covered the UN Secretary General’s same-day appeal to international leaders that began with a forthright statement of the science…”
The Lomborg link
Much of Gates’s new language echoes that of Danish author Bjørn Lomborg, a long-time critic of climate urgency who promotes what experts call climate delayism — accepting the science while arguing that rapid cuts are too expensive. Lomborg quickly praised Gates’s essay, saying he “nails it”.
And, astonishingly, Donald Trump celebrated it too, posting on Truth Social media:
Then came the deeper revelation: DeSmog uncovered that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has quietly funded Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Center for over a decade, with grants exceeding $3.5 million
https://www.desmog.com/2025/11/05/bill-gates-donated-climate-denier-bjorn-lomborg-copenhagen-consensus-center/
Officially, the money was for research on development priorities. Yet the Center has repeatedly produced reports downplaying climate risks and arguing that emission cuts should wait. In other words, Gates didn’t just echo Lomborg’s message, he helped fund it.
Tipping points and the cost of delay
The contrast with mainstream science could not be sharper. Research from the University of Exeter and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries warns that current policies risk triggering cascading tipping points, from ice-sheet collapse to Amazon dieback, with potential economic losses of up to 50 % of global GDP by the late 21st century
https://www.forbes.com/sites/we-dont-have-time/2025/02/28/50-gdp-collapse-ahead-actuaries-sound-the-alarm-whos-listening/
Those findings show that delay isn’t pragmatic; it’s ruinous. In this light, Gates’s call to shift focus from emissions to welfare reads to many scientists as a dangerous distraction.
The September dinner
Adding to the optics, Gates attended a September 4, 2025 dinner in New York hosted by Donald Trump for America’s most powerful tech leaders; Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, and Tim Cook among them. In the widely circulated video from the event, the executives appear to praise Trump and discuss “working together on innovation and energy.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLM0oaPXmBQ
Critics viewed it as symbolic: Silicon Valley’s billionaires edging closer to political power, and further from the scientific urgency once central to their climate messaging.
Overshadowing the science
The timing could hardly be more consequential. On the very day the UN implored governments to act before tipping points spiral out of control, Gates released a message that reframed the debate, and dominated global attention.
Instead of uniting behind Guterres’s science-based appeal, the conversation veered toward Gates’s new vision of “practical optimism.”
The voice of the UN Secretary-General, representing the world’s scientists was drowned out by a single billionaire’s blog post.
The question that matters
Bill Gates insists he remains guided by science. Yet his latest message was celebrated by Bjørn Lomborg, amplified by Donald Trump, and applauded by the tech elite, the very coalition most comfortable with delay.
So we are left with a choice:
Should we let a handful of tech billionaires decide when and how humanity responds to the climate crisis?
Or should we let scientists guide the path forward, while there’s still time to act?
At COP30, the world decides — and we at We Don’t Have Time are using every tool in our media power to keep science at the centre of that decision.
Do you want to help us succeed? Donate a small (or large) sum to our #MakeScienceGreatAgain campaign and get your own cap to support science.
https://wedonthavetime.org/msga
And tune in to our daily broadcast from COP30 and help us amplify the voice of science!
https://wedonthavetime.org/events/cop30
