Bill Gates is no stranger to progressive thinking. The philanthropic foundation he runs with his wife, Melinda, has backed everything from longer-lasting pill-based contraception to a process whereby human waste can be converted into safe, drinkable water. Most of their efforts are focused on improving conditions for the world’s poor in markets often neglected by private sector¹ corporations and government aid。

盖茨从来就是先进思想的代表。从支持更长效的避孕药物，到支持能转化人体排泄物生成安全的饮用水的工艺流程，盖茨与其妻经营的慈善基金会力挺多个项目。他们致力于改善世界贫困地区的条件，而私企和政府的援助常常会忽视这些贫困地区的市场。

Bill Gates has announced that he will be doubling his personal investments in clean energy technology over the next five years. Taking his total stake to a whopping US$2 billion in renewable energy production and research, Gates argues that the time is right because he believes that the next five years will see major advancements² in technology and initiatives that will help ‘solve’ climate change。

盖茨宣布他个人在未来五年会翻倍投资清洁能源技术。投资全部20亿美元股本致力可再生能源的生产研究，盖茨称眼下正是时机，他认为接下来的五年科技会突飞猛进，会大力采取行动帮助“解决”气候变化。

Despite the size of Gates’s personal funding for clean technologies, he acknowledges it’s a drop in the ocean compared to the investments and decisions made by governments around the world, prompting him to make the case for why a carbon-free future is a realistic and worthwhile commercial goal。

尽管盖茨个人对清洁技术的资金筹措数量不菲，但他也承认，比之世界各国政府的投资和决策而言，不过是杯水车薪。这促使盖茨提出理由，缘何零碳未来是个具现实意义、又值得一拼的商业目标。

Gates lays out a three-step model on his blog for how the countries of the world can achieve this ambitious target. Firstly, he says we need to create incentives³ for innovation by "drastically increasing government funding for research on clean energy solutions”. Second, we need to develop markets that help get to zero carbon emissions⁴, with models that more accurately⁵ recognise the full impact of emitting carbon (including health and environmental factors). Finally, Gates says we need to treat poor countries fairly. Acknowledging that some climate change is inevitable⁶, he advocates richer countries need to help poorer countries adapt to the world’s changing environmental conditions。

盖茨在他的博客上列出了各国如何达到这一宏伟目标的三步模型。首先，盖茨称要“大力提高政府对研究清洁能源解决方案的资金筹措，”，以此刺激革新。第二，我们要帮助市场达到零碳排放量，这就需要能更精确认识到碳排放影响(包括健康和环境因素)的模型在。最后，盖茨称要公平对待贫困国家，承认有些气候变化已不可逆转，他主张发达国家帮助贫困国家适应世界不断变化的环境条件。