Bill Gates is a philanthropist who mobilizes people around public-health issues.
The tech billionaire and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, have put their financial power and energy into the fight to eradicate dangerous diseases such as polio -- which was believed to have been eradicated in Western countries -- and malaria, among many others.
Their Foundation is also at the forefront of the fight against climate change. Bill Gates is personally an environmental activist, who travels the world to promote initiatives to reduce polluting emissions.
In speeches, symposiums and forums, the billionaire does not miss an opportunity to talk about climate and plead with everyone to protect the environment.
At the same time, the activism of Gates, once the world's richest man, is not well received by everyone.
'I Spend Billions of Dollars' on Climate
Proponents of fossil fuels and conservative political circles mostly rebuff and reject his criticisms. In recent years their criticisms have become more personal. They tend to call Gates a hypocrite and say he has no standing to fight for the environment because the billionaire travels on a private jet.
This criticism follows him wherever he talks about climate. It is in this context that the BBC asked him, during a recent interview in Kenya, about the potential contradiction between defending the environment while also being a fan of private jets.
"Well, I buy the gold standard of funding Climeworks, to direct air capture that far exceeds my family's carbon footprint," Gates told the BBC. "And I spend billions of dollars on ... climate innovation. So, you know, should I stay at home and not come to Kenya and learn about farming and malaria?"
Climeworks is a Swiss company that pulls carbon dioxide from the air using a technology called direct air capture.
"When the removed CO2 is combined with underground storage, it allows the permanent removal of excess and legacy CO2 emissions, which can no longer contribute to climate change," the firm said on its website.
Gates also said during the BBC interview that he was "comfortable with the idea that, not only am I not part of the problem by paying for the offsets, but also through the billions that my Breakthrough Energy Group is spending, that I'm part of the solution."
This is not the first time that the billionaire finds himself on the defensive regarding his trips in private jets. In 2021 he was forced to defend himself while promoting his book "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster."
In the book he presented a plan by which the world could reach zero emissions through the cooperation of large companies, which are the main polluters of the planet. In addition he proposed implementing new green technologies that can replace the current ones and move toward a more environmentally friendly future. Otherwise, he warns, the crisis will be much worse than imagined.
"I am offsetting my carbon emissions by buying clean aviation fuel and funding carbon capture and funding low-cost housing projects to use electricity instead of natural gas and so I have been able to eliminate it and it was amazing to me how expensive that was, that cost to be green. ... we've got to drive that down," Gates in February 2021 told then Fox News host Chris Wallace.
He continued: "I felt like, if we have this idealistic generation and this wonderful goal, we need a plan, and that my experience could help contribute to that plan."
Gates Has a Collection of Jets
A 2019 study by Lund University in Sweden concluded that in 2017 Gates made 59 private-jet flights, generating at least 1,600 metric tons of CO2 emissions. The average a person creates in a typical trip is five tons.
The billionaire has one private jet, Gates' private office told TheStreet after the story was published. TheStreet, citing Simpleflying.com, previously wrote that he owned four private jets in his collection. This is not accurate, according to the philanthropist's entourage.
In addition to his jet, Gates has a private Eurocopter EC135 helicopter, as well as a Cessna 207 Amphibian Caravan seaplane.
The billionaire is also known to have a huge collection of cars.
