Bill Gates explains what needs to be done in the next 10 years after Covid-19 pandemic

Microsoft chief, Bill Gates, has explained how the world should respond after the the coronavirus pandemic affected billions.

He recently revealed there were two further challenges the Earth faces when it recovers from Covid-19 – climate change and bioterrorism.

In his new book, he explains ‘the clear answer’ to what people should do collectively over the next decade.

He reveals why humans need to cut carbon emissions to zero, and how to respond after the pandemic finally comes to an end in the future.

He says 51bn greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere every year, but the Earth should aim for zero to stop the warming and worst effects from happening.

He used the analogy of climate being a bathtub that is slowly filling up with water, even if the flow is slowed down, it still overflows.

He admitted the only sensible goal is to reduce emissions to zero.

He wrote in The Guardian: “This sounds difficult, because it will be. Take this past year: economic activity has slowed down so much, due to Covid-19, that the world will emit fewer greenhouse gases.”

But the reduction will be around five per cent, meaning billions of tons of carbon will still be released.

Despite the millions of people who have died from Covid-19 and the tens of millions not working or staying at home, it still didn’t surpass five per cent.

Gates called himself the ‘imperfect messenger’ and that he “can’t deny being a rich guy with an opinion”, but the same technophile predicted coronavirus years before it swept across the planet.

In 2015, he predicted the spread of the virus, saying “people will feel well enough while they’re infectious that they get on a plane or they go to a market”.

The billionaire has also pumped $1bn into approaches that could get the world to zero carbon emissions, from affordable and reliable clean energy and low-emissions meat, steel and cement.

But he has now answered the question, what should people do after the pandemic and with the momentum of lowering emissions which coronavirus caused in a knock-on effect?

He says ‘the answer is clear’, and humans should spend the next 10 years focusing on the “technologies, policies and market structures that will put us on the path to eliminating gases by 2050”.

He added: “It’s hard to think of a better response to a miserable 2020 than spending the next 10 years dedicating ourselves to this ambitious goal.”

Bill Gates’ How To Avoid A Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have And The Breakthroughs We Need is published by Allen Lane on February 16.