I wish we could ignore Bill Gates on the climate crisis. But he's a billionaire, so we can't | George Monbiot

"His latest essay on climate, published last week, treats the issue as if it existed in a political vacuum. He writes as if there were no such thing as political power, and no such thing as billionaires. His main contention is that funds are very limited, so the delegates at this month's climate summit in Brazil should direct money away from near-term emissions goals towards climate adaptation and spending on poverty and disease."

"Yes, the funds available for any good cause are scarce, but that's not because of some natural law, some implacable truth about human society. It's because oligarchic power has waged war on benign state spending, leading to the destruction of USAID and drastic cuts to the aid budgets of other countries, including the UK. Austerity is a political choice. The decision to impose it is driven by governments bowing to the wishes of the ultra-rich."

"Just after Gates published his new missive, Oxfam revealed that the net worth of the 10 richest US billionaires grew by $698bn in the past year. That money alone, the increment in the wealth of 10 people, is almost 10 times the annual amount required to end extreme poverty worldwide. How have they managed to channel so much of the world's money into their pockets? And why can't we get it back through effective taxation?"

Climate policy cannot be separated from political power and wealth concentration; calls to reallocate scarce funds ignore who controls public budgets. Oligarchic influence has pushed governments toward austerity, hollowing out aid agencies and slashing international assistance. Vast private wealth gains—such as a $698bn increase among ten billionaires—vastly exceed sums needed to end extreme poverty and could finance stronger climate and social programs. Economic power converts into political power, allowing the ultra-rich to shape policy, evade effective taxation, and perpetuate a system that prevents large-scale public investment in emissions reduction and poverty relief.

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