Bill Gates publishes something called Gates Notes on subject matter, this one was around climate action.
“Currently, companies can get credit for reducing emissions by purchasing offsets, investments in a wide range of projects with climate impact, including forestry and land use or solar and wind power projects. These are worthwhile investments, but offsets as currently conceived do not offer a path to meaningful global reductions, much less zero”
“Offsets completely skirt the collective action problem that bedevils the fight against climate change. There will always be governments, companies, and individuals who either can’t afford
to or don’t care to offset their own emissions. Even if every single government, company, and individual could afford to and cared to, there simply aren’t enough offsets to zero out global emissions. So until we address the root causes of climate change, the temperature will keep rising. It is one thing to avoid contributing to the problem; it is another to be part of the solution.”
“We need to develop a new paradigm for thinking about net zero so that companies get credit not just for doing the thing we happen to measure right now but the thing that will make the biggest difference toward the one number that matters: global net-zero emissions”
“We intend to directly invest up to $3 billion over 5 years to advance vetted projects in four key areas: direct air capture, green hydrogen, long-duration energy storage, and sustainable jet fuel”