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Melinda Gates divorce lawyer joins Connecticut lawmaker struggle with Morgan Stanley exec

Melinda Gates divorce lawyer joins Connecticut lawmaker fight with Morgan Stanley exec

Senator Alex Bergstein

Source: ALEX for the Senate | Youtube

An already controversial divorce case between a Connecticut senator and her top Morgan Stanley husband has gotten even hotter with the arrival of a senior new attorney – who is also representing Melinda Gates in her mega-billion dollar bankruptcy with the Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

The new divorce attorney, Robert Cohen, also restored former President Donald Trump’s first two wives, Ivana Trump and Marla Maples.

Cohen is now working on the newly expanded legal team of Senator Alex Kasser, D-Greenwich, who this week fired a legal shot that threatens to drag other Morgan Stanley employees and the firm itself into divorce cases.

Kasser’s attorneys asked a judge to allow them to question three Morgan Stanley employees under oath, indicating the investment bank’s recent improper efforts to obtain personal financial information from her, even if her estranged husband, Seth Bergstein, remains there as a senior Managing Director and is Head of Global Services.

“Plaintiff [Kasser] is in possession of evidence suggesting that the accused [Bergstein] abused his authority at Morgan Stanley … against these subordinates, “reads a new file drawn up by Cohen’s legal partner, John Farley.

“He also appears to have encouraged MS staff to use false and coercive communications to the plaintiff to induce her to disclose personal financial information to which he was not entitled and appear to have taken an undue advantage in ongoing controversial divorce proceedings in this court attain “said the filing says.

Morgan Stanley’s private wealth management and risk management staff at the end of April gave Kasser “false information” about FINRA regulations, court orders, and Connecticut law as part of that effort.

The investigation referred to a joint report at Morgan Stanley that Kasser has shared with Bergstein for two decades. Permanent employees claim it has been “marked in red” and excluded from Kasser’s tax refund check “until we can confirm the account holder’s total net worth.”

Kasser’s attorneys also suggest that Bergstein may have acted illegally in July 2016 by asking a Morgan Stanley notary to certify a document executed for him for one of his trusts without him or his brother actually signing that document.

“As a result, the accused appears to have committed a crime by giving a knowing instruction to a subordinate to commit an illegal act,” Farley wrote on the file.

This request to the notary is documented in an email attached to a new Stamford, Connecticut, Superior Court motion to begin divorce proceedings against Bergstein and Kasser in August.

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Other emails filed by Kasser’s attorneys in court point to the changing explanations Morgan Stanley employees have given her for inquiries about her assets and the lack of direct responses to questions Kasser asked them about them Has made inquiries.

In one of those emails from Howard Gofstein, Executive Director of Private Wealth, Kasser was told that the query of her net worth was based on FINRA’s anti-money laundering regulations and for the knowledge of your clients. The message added that “we need to update when we know, but at least every three years.[sic]””

Farley’s court record states, “There is also no regulatory requirement that a bank ‘update … at least every three years’.”

“The Court should also be aware that misapplication of securities laws can have serious regulatory consequences for financial institutions and their employees,” wrote Farley.

A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley and Bergstein’s attorney Janet Battey declined to speak to CNBC.

Kasser, who previously worked as a lawyer for the white shoe company Skadden Arps, also declined to comment.

A bitter breakup

The new allegations have reinforced what was a bitter case from the start, filed more than two years ago when Kasser split up with Bergstein, with whom she has three children.

After that, she began a romantic relationship with another woman – Nichola Samponaro – who also happened to be the campaign manager for her 2018 Senate race.

CNBC detailed in 2019 how court records showed Bergstein, before his wife left him, proposed in 2018 that Samponaro, as a member of Kasser’s legislative staff, be paid with money he was willing to provide. Bergstein suggested channeling the money through a private company, which at one point belonged to Kasser’s mother, or through a Shell company, records show.

Bergstein never paid the money, the files say.

Samponaro left Kasser’s employees in her Senate office shortly after the Senator took her seat when questions were asked about Samponaro’s salary, which was paid directly by Kasser.

Kasser has since changed her last name, which used to be Bergstein, and continued her relationship with Samponaro.

Kasser also made headlines for citing a bill in Connecticut legislation known as Jennifer’s Law to add the concept of “coercive control” to the legal definition of domestic violence.

Obsessional control is defined as a partner who does things like withholding money or engaging in threatening behavior to prevent the other partner from leaving the relationship.

Kasser’s bill was passed almost unanimously by the Senate on Tuesday.

Last autumn, Kasser completed the re-election for her seat with a lead of only 0.8%. Their borough includes Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan. Before she won for the first time in 2018, that seat hadn’t been occupied by a Democrat in nearly 90 years.

Great background

Meanwhile, Kasser’s divorce case has flown largely under the media’s radar for the past two years.

That could change, however, with the recent unreported arrival of New York marriage lawyers Cohen and Farley as new members of Kasser’s legal team. The group included veteran Connecticut divorce attorneys.

Cohen’s marriage clients included Trump’s first wife, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, KKR & Co. co-founder Henry Kravis, and supermodel Christie Brinkley. He is currently representing Melinda Gates, who jointly announced their split from Bill Gates earlier this month after 27 years of marriage. Bill Gates’ net worth is estimated at north of $ 134 billion.

Central Islip, NY: Christie Brinkley and Attorney Robert Cohen speak to the media following a divorce settlement settlement with Peter Cook during the press conference at the Courthouse in Central Islip, New York on July 10, 2008.

Alan Raia | Newsday LLC | Newsday | Getty Images

Cohen declined to comment on this article.

However, another well-known New York City divorce attorney suggested Kasser made a wise decision to hire Cohen.

“He’s a fantastic lawyer,” said Marilyn Chinitz, whose celebrity married clients included actors Tom Cruise and Michael Douglas. “He’s talented, he’s aggressive.”

Chinitz is currently involved in four marriage cases in which Cohen is representing the other party.

“A case with Bob can be challenging, but it’s good to have a case with someone who knows the law and he’s a good trial attorney,” said Chinitz.

“He’s creative in solving a case.”

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Business

Invoice Gates Had Fame for Questionable Habits Earlier than Divorce

Bill Gates Had Reputation for Questionable Behavior Before Divorce

While Mr. Gates thought this brought the matter to an end, Ms. French Gates was not satisfied with the result, two of the people said. She asked a law firm to conduct an independent review of the Cascade woman’s allegations and culture. Mr Larson was given a leave of absence while the investigation was ongoing, but he was eventually reinstated. (It is unclear whether the investigation exonerated Mr. Larson.) He remains responsible for Cascade.

A spokesman for Mr. Larson had no comment.

About a year after the settlement – and less than two weeks after Ms. French Gates ‘column in Time – the Times published an article about Mr. Gates’ relationship with Mr. Epstein. The article reported that the two men had spent time together on multiple occasions, had flown on Mr. Epstein’s private jet, and attended a nightly meeting at his Manhattan townhouse. “His lifestyle is very diverse and fascinating, although it wouldn’t work for me,” Gates emailed his colleagues in 2011 after meeting Mr. Epstein for the first time.

(Mrs. Arnold, the spokeswoman for Mr. Gates, said at the time that he regretted the relationship with Mr. Epstein. She said that Mr. Gates did not know that the plane belonged to Mr. Epstein and that Mr. Gates was referring to that unique decor of Mr. Epstein’s house.)

The Times article contained details about Mr. Gates’ interactions with Mr. Epstein that Ms. French Gates had not known before, according to people familiar with the matter. Soon after its release, she began consulting with divorce lawyers and other counselors who would help the couple split their wealth, one respondent said. The Wall Street Journal previously reported the timing of their attorneys’ appointments.

The Times revelations were particularly angry with Ms. French Gates for previously expressing her discomfort at her husband, who was linked to Mr. Epstein, who died of suicide in federal custody in 2019 shortly after being charged with sex trafficking in girls was. Ms. French Gates expressed discomfort in the fall of 2013 after she and Mr. Gates had dinner with Mr. Epstein at his townhouse. (The incident was previously reported by The Daily Beast.)

For years, Mr. Gates went on to dinners and meetings at Mr. Epstein’s, where Mr. Epstein usually surrounded himself with young and attractive women, said two people who were there and two others who were told about the meetings.

Ms. Arnold said Mr. Gates never socialized or attended parties with Mr. Epstein, and she denied that young and attractive women attended their meetings. “Bill only met with Epstein to discuss philanthropy,” Ms. Arnold said.

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Business

The Separate Worlds of Invoice and Melinda Gates

The Separate Worlds of Bill and Melinda Gates

“It was a constant stress point in the foundation. It was Warren who put it down, but Bill’s appetite is always, “We should do this, we should do this.” The teams end up with this huge to-do list, ”said the former CEO.

Mr Buffett admitted in an interview with The Times last year that he spoke out against institutional bloating. “That’s the only piece of advice I never silence because it’s the natural tendency of any organization,” he said.

Foundation staff often have to wear multiple hats to meet requirements. For example, one employee, Anita Zaidi, serves in the highly technical role of director of vaccine development and surveillance, but also serves as president for gender equality.

In a 2015 TED talk, Mr Gates warned of the global threat posed by contagious respiratory viruses. The foundation was full of top talent working to develop new vaccines. However, there was not a single person out of around 1,600 employees fully dedicated to the pandemic prior to the outbreak of Covid-19.

All contract workarounds and consultants had so much bandwidth and it was decided not to have a dedicated team to work on the matter. Instead, the foundation championed the Coalition for Epidemic Preparation Innovation, which helped develop vaccines to control outbreaks.

When the pandemic broke out, the foundation used its resources and expertise. It has so far allocated $ 1.75 billion to fight the pandemic and has played a key role in shaping the global response.

Even without the divorce, the foundation was in the midst of change. Mr. Buffett, the third trustee, turns 91 this summer. Mr. Gates’ father, Bill Gates Sr., who was co-chair and directing hand of the foundation, died last September. Some observers have wondered if the couple’s three children could get involved anytime soon. The older two are already in college and medical school. Others have raised the possibility that this is the moment to loosen the grip of the family and install a board drawn by professionals outside the inner circle.

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Business

What the Gates Divorce Means for the Gates Basis

What the Gates Divorce Means for the Gates Foundation

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation began with an ambition that, by its high standards, seems almost curious today: to provide free Internet access to public libraries in the United States. As the scope of the founders’ goals grew, so did the foundation’s reach, until it achieved its current position as a pre-eminent private institution in global public health.

With 1,600 employees providing $ 5 billion in annual grants to 135 countries around the world, the Gates Foundation set a new standard for private philanthropy in the 21st century.

All of this was called into question on Monday when the world learned that the Foundation’s 27-year-old co-chairs filed for divorce in Washington state. Fellows and staff alike wondered what was going to happen and whether it might affect the mission.

The message from Seattle headquarters was clear: Bill and Melinda Gates may split up, but the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is not going anywhere. Her roles as co-chair and trustee are not changing and they will continue to set the agenda for the organization that bears her name. In an email on Monday, Gates Foundation executive director Mark Suzman assured staff that both Mr. and Mrs. Gates remain committed to the organization.

While Mr. Suzman noted that it was “obviously a difficult time of personal change” for the couple, he added that “Bill and Melinda specifically asked me to express their deep gratitude for everything they do each day, especially during the Covid-19 crisis. as well as for your support and understanding during this difficult time. “

The foundation’s $ 50 billion endowment is in a charitable foundation that is irrevocable. It can’t be removed or shared as a conjugal good, said Megan Tompkins-Stange, professor of public policy and philanthropist at the University of Michigan. However, she noted that there was no legal mandate preventing her from changing course.

“I think there might be changes,” she said. “But I don’t see it as a big asteroid landing in the field of philanthropy, as some of the exaggerations here have shown.”

Bill Gates was a fascinating object in the US almost from the moment he came on the scene as the founder of Microsoft. The prototypical computer genius became the entrepreneur, the nerdy foil for Steve Jobs and his black turtlenecks and artistic designs. He became the richest man in the world, and in the Justice Department’s 1998 antitrust case against Microsoft, he was heralded for better and for worse as the new John D. Rockefeller.

But in the decades since then, he has changed his image through the work he and Ms. Gates carried out together with the foundation and is best known for his generosity and not for his ruthlessness in business. The nearly $ 55 billion donated by the Gates Foundation also gave the couple instant access to heads of state and industry leaders.

Ms. Gates has her own growing profile, both through her work for the foundation and through her Pivotal Ventures company, which she has been using since 2015 to invest in causes related to women’s economic empowerment. Some observers noted that Ms. Gates had added her maiden name, French, to her Twitter profile.

The couple made their connections in response to the pandemic last year, calling on leaders like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi to rally support for their plans. The foundation has so far allocated $ 1.75 billion for its Covid-19 response and has played a key role in shaping the global deal to introduce vaccines to poor countries.

This notoriety has also brought some control and the robust defense of intellectual property rights by Mr Gates – in this case specifically for vaccination patents – even in times of extreme crises, as well as the larger question of how unelected wealthy individuals can do such a thing on the global stage play an oversized role.

Updated

May 4, 2021, 3:12 p.m. ET

“In a democratic civil society, a couple’s personal choices shouldn’t lead university research centers, service providers, and nonprofits to truly question whether they can continue,” said Maribel Morey, founding director of the Miami Institute for the Social Sciences.

Ms. Gates filed for divorce in the King County, Washington Supreme Court on Monday. She called the marriage “irrevocably broken” and asked the court to dissolve it. On her file, Ms. Gates said they were already separated. She signed the form in Bellevue, Washington, and Mr. Gates signed his part in Palm Desert, California, near where they own a house.

The petition said the couple had a separation agreement. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that on Monday, millions of Canadian National Railway and AutoNation shares, valued at $ 1.8 billion in total, were transferred to Ms. Gates by Cascade Investment, a Mr. Gates holding company.

The $ 1.8 billion is a tremendous fortune in any way, less than 2 percent of the Forbes estimate of the total value of Mr. Gates, and is believed to be just a small step in the couple’s final division of the couple’s marital wealth. The transfers were previously reported by Bloomberg.

Before the news of the divorce broke, the Gates Foundation was in the midst of a change. The pandemic closed its Seattle headquarters despite top ranks of state health officials and the pharmaceutical industry working to find a response to the deadly, fast-spreading new coronavirus.

And as his public profile grew during the pandemic, so too did false conspiracy theories such as that the global vaccination effort provided cover for Mr. Gates to implant microchips to track people.

Then, in September, Mr. Gates’ father, Bill Gates Sr., also co-chair of the Foundation, died. The older Mr. Gates had initially taken the lead in his son’s charitable endeavors, while the younger Mr. Gates was still at the helm of Microsoft. Bill Gates Sr. was seen by many as the calm voice and moral compass within the organization, even after he had resigned in recent years.

The third trustee, billionaire Warren E. Buffett, turned 90 last year and has begun discussing succession plans at his Berkshire Hathaway firm.

Dr. Morey said the recent changes could also provide an opportunity to create a large, diverse body while increasing the visibility of the foundation’s decision-making. “Part of the concern stems from the lack of visibility into the day-to-day activities of the Gates Foundation,” she said.

Mr and Mrs Gates have had problems in their marriage for the past few years and even moments when it was on the verge of breakdown, according to people who were close to them. After making the break formal and legal, many in their orbit are trying to figure out what that means for the foundation. Some fear that Ms. Gates will put more effort into Pivotal Ventures, while Mr. Gates will spend even more time in his own private office, Gates Ventures. Others describe such fears as exaggerated.

“Bill and Melinda always had separate activities. They always spent time and spent time creating it, ”said Greg Ratliff, senior vice president at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, who worked for the Gates Foundation for a decade. “It will continue to be a great, influential foundation, and each of them will be as influential as I think they were together.”

While it seems clear that the foundation will move forward with its tremendous resources, the question of the Gates fortune remains, which Forbes estimates at $ 124 billion. The divorce does not affect the money that has already been given to the foundation foundation, but the couple may spend less money on it over time than if they had stayed together.

“People rightly feel unmoved about the direction of the foundation,” said Ms. Tompkins-Stange of the University of Michigan. “There is a lot of confusion about how it might be in any divorce situation, but they seem determined to raise the foundation together.”

David Gelles contributed to the coverage.

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Business

Invoice and Melinda Gates Are Divorcing After 27 Years of Marriage

Bill and Melinda Gates Are Divorcing After 27 Years of Marriage

Bill and Melinda Gates, two of the richest people in the world who were reshaping philanthropy and public health with the fortune made by Mr. Gates as co-founder of Microsoft, said Monday they were divorcing.

For decades, Mr. and Mrs. Gates have been unique forces on the world stage. Their enormous charitable donations give them access to the highest levels of government, business, and the non-profit sector. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with approximately $ 50 billion in endowment, has made a tremendous impact in areas from global health to early childhood education and has made great strides in reducing deaths from malaria and other infectious diseases. And last year, the couple were particularly visible, regularly commenting on the global battle against Covid-19, when their foundation spent more than $ 1 billion fighting the pandemic.

“After much thought and work on our relationship, we made the decision to end our marriage,” said Mr. and Mrs. Gates in a statement posted on Twitter.

They went on to say that they “have built a foundation that works around the world to help all people live healthy and productive lives” and that they “continue to believe in this mission” but “can no longer believe us” in grow together as a couple in this next phase of our life. “

The foundation said in a statement that Mr. and Mrs. Gates would remain co-chairs and trustees and that no changes were expected in the organization.

“They will continue to work together to develop and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s problems, and set the general direction of the organization,” the statement said.

Even so, the divorce will raise new questions about the fate of Gates’ fortune, much of which have not yet been donated to the Gates Foundation. The 65-year-old Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, is one of the richest people in the world with an estimated value of $ 124 billion, according to Forbes. The Gateses have been married for 27 years and have three children.

With 1,600 employees in offices around the world, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awards approximately $ 5 billion each year in areas such as global public health and development. The foundation used their expertise and relationships to play a key role in formulating the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, investing early in vaccine candidates, and Covax, the global initiative to organize the purchase of vaccines for 92 poor countries and dozens of other nations to help shape.

“Bill and Melinda Gates pioneered the great philanthropy of today,” said David Callahan, founder of Inside Philanthropy. “Everything was oversized.”

While the Gateses did not provide details on how they would structure their finances, it is believed that they have a marriage agreement. The Gateses are the largest farmland owners in America and have huge investments, despite Cascade Investment, which manages Mr. Gates’ personal wealth, and has large stakes in the Four Seasons hotel chain, the Canadian National Railway and AutoNation, the largest car dealership chain in the United States Landes, owns companies, among other things. The family owns several homes and lots, including a 66,000 square foot mansion in Washington.

In business today

Updated

May 3, 2021, 6:40 p.m. ET

Mr. Callahan said Ms. Gates, 56, could become even more influential in the years to come.

She already has her own company, Pivotal Ventures, which she has invested in to invest in women’s economic empowerment issues. Should she receive any of the Microsoft inventory from Mr. Gates, she could start a new foundation or give direct gifts for other causes she supports.

“You could imagine Melinda Gates being a much more progressive giver herself,” said Mr. Callahan. “She will be an important force in philanthropy for decades to come.”

In 2019, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and longtime wife MacKenzie Scott divorced. Ms. Scott received $ 36 billion worth of Amazon stock at the time and immediately set out to make billions of dollars in direct grants to a number of progressive organizations.

Mr. Gates recently resigned from some of his business activities. Last year he left the board of directors of Microsoft and the board of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate of his close friend Warren Buffett.

Mr. Buffett has donated billions of dollars to the Gates Foundation over the years and has pledged to leave most of his fortune to the foundation when he dies. In 2010, Mr. Buffett and the Gateses founded the Giving Pledge to encourage wealthy individuals to donate much of their money to charity.

Mr. and Mrs. Gates have had relationship problems in recent years, said two people close to them. There have been multiple times when the relationship was nearing breakdown, but they worked to keep it together, people said. Mr Gates decided to partially step down from the boards of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to spend more time with his family, these people said.

“When he had difficulty making the decision to get married, it was incredibly clear to him that it was not about me, but about whether I could find the right balance between work and family,” said Ms. Gates in one Interview in 2019 in the Sunday Times of London. “And believe me, I can remember a few days that were so incredibly difficult in our marriage when you thought, ‘Can I do this?'”

Nicholas Kulish contributed to the coverage.

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Health

Melinda Gates says we might attain world herd immunity someday in 2022

Melinda Gates says we could reach global herd immunity sometime in 2022

Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks during a television interview by Bloomberg Technology in San Francisco, California on Tuesday, May 7, 2019.

Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Billionaire philanthropist and former tech manager Melinda Gates told CNBC that global herd immunity to Covid-19 could be achieved sometime in 2022.

Covid vaccines, especially stand-alone vaccines like Johnson & Johnson’s, are unlikely to hit developing countries “en masse” until later this year, said Gates, who donated millions to coronavirus vaccine and treatment research as co-chair of the program on Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“So it will be sometime in 2022 before we have full herd immunity,” she told CNBC’s Sara Eisen in an interview that aired on Closing Bell on Monday. “And boy, I think we’re all looking forward to it. There are a lot of people who are suffering, not just in the US but everywhere.”

Gates’ comments come as global leaders and public health officials around the world try to hand out doses of Covid-19 vaccines in hopes of ending the pandemic that has infected more than 117 million people worldwide, according to reports Johns Hopkins University has killed nearly 2.6 million people.

Medical experts said it could be months or even years before nations can vaccinate enough people to achieve herd immunity. The longer it takes to get there, the more time the virus will have to mutate into potentially dangerous new variants as it spreads to new hosts.

Infectious disease experts warn that there is a high likelihood of Covid-19 becoming an endemic disease, which means it will spread to society like the flu every year, albeit likely at a lower level than it is today. Officials must constantly look for new variants of the virus so scientists can make vaccines against them, experts say.

Last month, Bill Gates told CNBC that shooting in developing countries will “be the only way to end the pandemic”. World Health officials have been concerned that poorer nations will miss out on the vaccines as richer nations like the US, China and much of Europe buy out all of the supply.

Meanwhile, counties and states in the US are rapidly giving vaccinations, but the nation is still “far from” achieving herd immunity to Covid, Adam MacNeil, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told an FDA advisory panel late last month.

Around 60 million of around 331 million Americans received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at 6 a.m. CET on Monday, according to the CDC. And around 31.2 million of those people are fully vaccinated.

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical officer, the goal is to vaccinate between 70% and 85% of the US population – or about 232 to 281 million people – to achieve herd immunity and quell the pandemic.

Earlier on Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new guidelines that allow people who are fully vaccinated to see vaccinated and some unvaccinated indoors safely without wearing masks or staying 6 feet away.

During the CNBC interview, Gates praised Biden’s response to the pandemic, saying it was “night and day” compared to the Trump administration’s efforts.

“Is it perfect already? Absolutely not,” said Gates. “But is it a fundamental change? I mean, we deliver vaccines as a nation, you know. … 15% of the population is insured. So there is more to be done, but you are seeing more tests. You I see more hope because people see their loved ones who are vaccinated older. “

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Business

Invoice Gates on his carbon footprint

Bill Gates on his carbon footprint

Bill Gates is a climate change philanthropist and evangelist.

But he knows full well that his life as a billionaire and business tycoon also makes him an “imperfect ambassador for climate change”, he writes in his new book “How to Avoid a Climate Catastrophe”.

“I can’t deny I’m a rich man with an opinion,” writes Gates, who is worth more than $ 100 billion, has a huge home in Medina, Washington (known as the “Xanado 2.0”) and uses a private jet (which helps) he does the worldwide work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he said on Reddit).

“It is true that my carbon footprint is absurdly high,” writes Gates in his new book.

“I own big houses and fly in private planes – in fact, I brought one to Paris for the climate conference – so who am I to teach someone about the environment?” he writes.

Gates says he long felt guilty about its high emissions, but “Working on this book made me even more aware of my responsibility to reduce them,” he writes. “Reducing my carbon footprint is the least that can be expected from someone in my position who is concerned about climate change and who publicly calls for action.”

(Gates’ disproportionate consumption of carbon-emitting fossil fuels is representative of a larger global trend: The “1%” are the main drivers of climate change, while the poorest are hardest hit.)

According to Gates’ book, he started using sustainable jet fuel in 2020 and “will fully offset my family’s aviation emissions by 2021”.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the trade association for the world’s airlines, sustainable jet fuel is not made from fossil fuels. According to IATA, it can be made from any number of raw materials, including edible oil, vegetable oils, municipal waste, exhaust fumes, and agricultural residues.

For Gates’ non-aviation emissions, he writes that he “buys offsets through a company that operates a facility that removes carbon dioxide from the air.”

A carbon offset is a reduction in carbon emissions in order to offset the emissions generated elsewhere. In particular, “offsetting carbon means reducing or removing one ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere,” said Anne Thiel, communications manager at Verra, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit. Carbon dioxide is used as a reference point because it is the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and “stays in the climate system for a very long time,” says Thiel.

It’s worth noting that some criticize the idea of ​​carbon offsetting as a convenient loophole for more permanent solutions. Others, however, see it as better than nothing.

“Businesses should carefully set and work towards a net zero target, and we should all stick to those targets. In the meantime, however, we must now find a way to reduce emissions in order to avoid catastrophic climate change,” says Naomi Swickard. the Chief Program Officer at Verra. “Offsets are one of the most efficient, short-term ways to drive funding to real emissions reductions so we can turn the corner and stay below the turning points of the planet – giving us time for the longer term transition.”

Gates writes that he also invests in clean energy companies and nonprofits. For example, in 2015 Gates pioneered Breakthrough Energy, a venture capital fund that invests in technology for climate innovations “that will lead the world to net zero”.

Net zero emissions mean getting to a place where no new emissions are released into the atmosphere overall. “The emissions will persist, but will be offset by absorbing an appropriate amount from the atmosphere,” said the United Nations.

“I’ve put more than $ 1 billion into approaches that I hope will help the world go to zero, including affordable and reliable clean energy and low-carbon cement, steel, meat and more,” writes Gates in his book.

“Of course, investing in companies doesn’t reduce my carbon footprint. However, once I have chosen winners, they are responsible for removing much more carbon than my family or myself are responsible for,” Gates wrote.

“Besides, it’s not just a person’s goal to offset their emissions, but to avoid a climate catastrophe.”

See also:

Fossil fuel emissions responsible for 1 in 5 premature deaths: Harvard report

The Who, What, and Where of Elon Musk’s $ 100 million prize for carbon capture innovations

Carbon capture technology has been around for decades – that’s why it hasn’t caught on