Gates' credo: Climate protection on a global scale cannot be prescribed, the need for cheap energy is too great, especially in the rapidly growing emerging countries of Asia and Africa.
And almost a billion people do not have their own access to electricity.
Gates believes that only if climate-friendly technologies were better than climate-damaging ones would they prevail.
He even pays tribute to China's achievement of lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty within just a few decades using readily available coal energy as "one of the greatest achievements in human history". Now China is trying to sell its coal technology to emerging economies that are also trying to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. The endeavor could not be prevented by decree ..