In decades past, as the effects of climate change slowly became undeniable, some looked to the super-rich — the billionaires with enough cash to really make a splash — for solutions.
They backed green energy campaigns and carbon capture programs, pushed plastics recycling and climate change messaging. New products hit the market as ethical consumption became the rule of the day: electric vehicles, solar panels, reusable bags, carbon-neutral dryer balls.
By the early 2020s, billionaires had positioned themselves as the masters of climate change policy, taking advantage of their great fortunes to become indispensable to environmentalism.
Now, however, many of those same billionaires are pulling support at an alarming rate. And Bill Gates — Microsoft founder, sixth richest man in the world, and alleged sex pest — is the latest among them.
New reporting by Heatmap is signaling the end of a "major chapter in climate giving," as Breakthrough Energy — Gates' climate change nonprofit — has locked the doors on its policy and advocacy office, laying off dozens of employees throughout Europe and the US.
Breakthrough's lobbying was central to advancing climate policy through legislation championed by the Biden administration, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, and the bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Though the billionaire's for-profit green energy investments at companies like Arnergy and Mission Zero Technologies remain in place, Breakthrough's belt-tightening will very likely end the nonprofit's grant writing efforts. That's a major blow to climate nonprofits, and further evidence that, for all their feel-good bluster, the mega-rich never forget their bottom line.
Ever since billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump won his second presidential election, tech barons like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and of course Elon Musk have made no bones about shedding their progressive skin and embracing the new administration.
Gates, too, is cozying up to the returning president. In early January, the Microsoft founder spent three hours dining with his fellow billionaire, telling the Wall Street Journal he was "frankly impressed" by Trump's grasp on the issues dear to him.
Though many no doubt feel betrayed by what seems like a sudden rightward turn, billionaires like Gates have always behaved like wolves in sheep's clothing, prioritizing their fortunes above all.
For example, Gates was heavily involved in establishing the Global Fund, a privately-funded rival to the World Health Organization. While the Global Fund did improve global vaccination rates, the cost of basic medicines skyrocketed thanks to his introduction of for-profit actors into global health efforts — another sector made to rely on the generosity of billionaires.
Since then, Gates has had no trouble withholding COVID vaccines from impoverished countries, raking in profits from union-busting corporations, and throwing out money to buy media influence — to say nothing of his chummy friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
It all goes to show: billionaires were never going to save the world from climate catastrophe — they just needed us to believe they could.
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