Book Summary: How To Avoid Climate Disaster by Bill Gates

This article summarizes the key points of the book “How to avoid a climate disaster — The solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need”.

The book is based on the premise that we have to get from the current state of 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases globally added to the atmosphere to a target value of 0 to avoid a climate disaster.

Why do we have to get to 0?

This is easy, greenhouse gases trap heat and thereby cause global warming. And the hotter it gets on earth the harder it will be for humans to survive. But what does Gates actually mean by “0”? In the past, the earth’s carbon cycle was in balance, meaning the earth’s vegetation (plants & trees etc.) absorbed the greenhouse gases emitted. But nowadays we emit extra carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels (oil, coal or natural gas) and the earth can’t keep up. According to Gates there is no way we can abandon these fuels completely, therefore, next to decreasing emissions, we have to also use ways to remove the carbon we have to emit and have already emitted in the past. So ‘0’ does not mean having ‘0’ emissions but achieving “near net zero” again, where the earth’s eco-system is in balance and can absorb the emitted greenhouse gases.

How do we get to 0?