“It’s really hard for people to get their minds around the amount of reduction required,” says Mr. Gates. “Every year we’re increasing the amount of CO2 we put out, and yet we’re talking about an 80% reduction. To make that happen, the rich world is going to have to be way down – way down – in energy use.
To have the kind of reliable energy we expect, and to have it be cheaper and zero carbon, we need to pursue every available path to achieve a really big breakthrough. Our probability of success is much higher if we’re pursuing many, many paths.
The odds against them (those working on solutions) are higher than they realize. The world needs all these people trying things out and believing in them. In IT, there were tons of dead ends-but there was enough of a success rate to have an unbelievable impact.”