Bill Gates Takes Private Jet to Demand Taxpayers Pay for Climate Change
Billionaire admits taking plane to Paris Climate Accord as he demands billions more
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Billionaire Bill Gates is demanding that taxpayers around the world must foot the huge bill for his Climate Change agenda.
Speaking during an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Gates argued that the public has a responsibility to switch to expensive electric cars and be willing to pay higher taxes in order to meet his environmental goals.
However, Gates' comments come amid his own admission that he still uses private jets for his globetrotting and even flew into the Paris Climate Accord on one of his luxury planes.
Gates, the third richest man in the world, was met with a backlash from critics over his expectations for cash-strapped families to fork out extra for electric cars to go green.
"We are not going to stop building buildings, and flying planes," the Microsoft co-founder told the BBC.
In his new book - How to Avoid a Climate Disaster - Gates admits that he frequently uses private jets to fly to environmental events.
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Gates went on to admit he was an “imperfect messenger on climate change” as people would think he was a hypocrite.
Despite acknowledging the hypocrisy, he ordered ordinary people to use less and buy an electric car or pricey heat pump to make their homes green.
Gates complained about the running costs of the private jets during the BBC interview, saying that "I am buying biofuel, where I pay three times as much for my aviation fuel."
He said people should use their feet to "buy an electric car, buy an electric heat pump" to get the price of the goods down.
He vowed: "While behavior change is a good thing, we are not going to stop building buildings, or flying planes."
And he claimed climate change will cause "far more deaths" than the current COVID-19 pandemic and would be easier than the current pandemic.
The computer whizz demanded governments around the world must subsidize businesses with taxpayer money to go green with extra research and development funding.
In a separate interview, President Trump-critic Gates praised Joe Biden’s radical environmental policies.
On Sunday, During an appearance on "60 Minutes," Gates celebrated Biden’s efforts to destroy the domestic fossil fuels industry in order to replace it with eco-friendly “sustainable” alternatives.
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During his chat with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Gates touted what he calls a “zero-carbon future.”
He revealed that his plan for the next 30 years will require a “global cooperation on a scale the world has never seen.”
Biden's green agenda has already resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs due to the cancelation of the Keystone XL pipeline, bans on oil and gas drilling leases, and the possible termination of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
According to Gates, it's the public that should invest their tax dollars in the plans.
WATCH:
Bill Gates says the U.S. has to lead the world getting to zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and is asking the Biden administration to massively increase the budget for climate change energy research to $35 billion a year. https://t.co/wh2DwPpFGm pic.twitter.com/kCO6uiy3DF
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) February 15, 2021
Gates says in his book that he sold his direct holdings in oil and gas companies in 2019.
“I don’t want to profit if their stock prices go up because we don’t develop zero-carbon alternatives,” he writes.
“I’d feel bad if I benefited from a delay in getting to zero.”
However, Gates doesn't seem to be quite ready to give up private jets any time soon.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Gates is doubling down on private-jet travel.
Just last week, the billionaire’s Cascade Investment LLC agreed to team up with Blackstone Group Inc. and private-equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners in a $4.7 billion deal for Signature Aviation PLC.
The deal would boost Cascade’s stake in the world’s largest operator of private-jet bases to 30%, from a previous 19%.
