为什么我要参加COP | 盖茨笔记

If you follow the news on climate change (and maybe even if you don’t), your news feed has probably been filled with the acronym COP lately. That’s the Conference of Parties, the United Nations’ annual meeting on climate change. This year’s event, COP28, which starts at the end of this week, is an especially important one, and I’ll be traveling to Dubai in a few days to attend.

如果你关注气候变化的新闻（甚至如果你不关注），你的新闻推送可能最近充斥着缩写COP。这是联合国每年举行的气候变化大会，即“缔约方会议”（Conference of Parties）。今年的第28届联合国气候变化大会将于本周末开幕，它尤为重要，我将在几天内前往迪拜参加。

In all of my speeches, panels, and meetings, I’ll share the same messages:

在所有的演讲、小组讨论和会议中，我都会分享同样的信息：

1. Because of a boom in climate-related innovation that started at the Paris COP in 2015, there’s more reason to be optimistic than most people realize.

1. 由于从2015年巴黎气候变化大会开始的气候相关创新激增，我们有更多理由对未来保持乐观，这一点大多数人并没有意识到。

2. But it’s still a big challenge, and since the world has finite resources for fighting it, we need to focus on the efforts that will save and improve the most lives.

2. 但这仍然是一项巨大的挑战，由于全球在对抗气候变化的过程中资源有限，我们需要集中精力进行那些能够拯救并改善最多生命的努力。

3. That means funding more innovations that reduce carbon emissions while making clean energy affordable for everyone, help people (especially in poor countries) survive and thrive in a warming world, and continue the world’s progress on fighting disease and poverty.

3. 这意味着要资助更多的创新，以减少碳排放，同时让每个人都能负担得起清洁能源，帮助人们（尤其是贫困国家的人们）在气候变暖的世界中生存和发展，并继续推动世界在抗击疾病和贫困方面取得进展。

The point about disease and poverty is especially important. As the world commits more money to dealing with climate change, we need to maintain our efforts to improve health and spark economic growth in poor countries. The people who are dying from malaria or stuck in poverty today are just as important as the grandchildren we’re trying to preserve the climate for. So it’s great that this COP includes a summit on food systems and a day specifically focused on health.

关于疾病和贫困的观点尤为重要。随着全球投入更多资金来应对气候变化，我们需要继续努力改善贫困国家的健康状况并促进经济增长。那些当下因疟疾丧生或深陷贫困的人，与我们为了保护孙辈而努力的目标同样重要。本次COP既包含粮食系统峰会，又专注于健康议题，这一安排非常出色。

If you want to know more about why I’m optimistic about climate, how it’s connected to health and development, and what we should do next, you can read my Gates Notes post from a couple of weeks ago.

如果你想了解我为什么对应对气候变化感到乐观，以及它与健康和发展的联系，还有我们接下来应该做什么，你可以阅读我几周前在盖茨笔记上发布的文章。

At every COP, a good question is raised about carbon offsets. What are the attendees doing to compensate for all the emissions generated by flying to the United Arab Emirates for this meeting?

在每届COP上，都会提出关于碳抵消的一个好问题：对于与会者为了参加这次会议飞往阿联酋而产生的所有排放，他们都做了哪些补偿措施呢？

It’s great that so much attention is being paid to offsets. They’re a complicated subject, and it’s important to have a conversation about the most effective ways to do offsets. I approach this subject, as I do most tough ones, by using science and data to guide my thinking: What steps will prevent or remove the most emissions for every dollar spent?

关注碳抵消是件好事。这是一个复杂的问题，重要的是对如何最有效地实施碳抵消进行讨论。我处理这个问题的方式，就像处理大多数棘手问题一样，是运用科学和数据来引导我的思考：采取哪些措施可以在每花费一美元的情况下阻止或消除最多的排放？

Personally, I know I have a high carbon footprint, and I’m taking several steps to reduce my own emissions and offset the ones I can’t eliminate. When I fly, I buy low-carbon sustainable air fuel that’s made from alternatives to fossil fuels. I’ve installed solar panels in my homes and drive an electric vehicle. I’ve paid ClimeWorks several million dollars in the past few years to remove enough carbon from the air to offset the remaining emissions.

从个人角度来看，我知道我的碳足迹很高，因此我正在采取一些措施来减少自己的排放，并抵消我无法消除的排放。当我乘飞机时，我会购买由替代化石燃料制成的可持续低碳航空燃料。我在我的住所安装了太阳能电池板，驾驶电动汽车出行。在过去几年里，我向ClimeWorks支付了数百万美元，用于从空气中消除足够多的碳，以抵消剩余的排放。

Also, although this isn’t related to offsets or reducing emissions, in 2019 I started selling my direct holdings in oil and gas companies because I didn't want to profit from them as the world transitions to clean energy.

另外，虽然这与抵消或减少排放无关，但自2019年起，我开始出售我在石油和天然气公司的直接持股，因为我不想在世界转向清洁能源时从中获利。

I’m lucky that I can afford to pay for offsets. Many of the best approaches, especially the air fuel and carbon removal, are far too expensive to be used widely. I do it because I can and should, and because I want to help these new technologies build a customer base that will drive down the prices and help them reach a broad scale. I expect that my approach will continue to evolve so this funding can have the most impact.

我很幸运，因为我有能力支付抵消费用。许多最有效的方法，特别是航空燃料和碳消除，价格昂贵，难以被广泛使用。我之所以这样做，是因为我有这个能力，也有义务这样做，同时我希望帮助这些新技术建立一个客户基础，推动竞争，降低价格，并帮助它们实现大规模应用。我希望我的方法能够继续发展，从而使这笔资金产生最大的影响。

Regardless, none of this reduces the need to develop clean technologies across every sector of the economy. I’ve funded $2 billion in clean-energy technology and plan to fund that much again in the next few years. (I’ll give any profits from these investments back to society through philanthropy.) I’m excited to get to COP, share my optimism about the future, and talk about how we can both avoid a climate disaster and improve life for people today and in the generations to come.

尽管如此，这并不能减轻我们在经济各个领域发展清洁技术的需求。我已为清洁能源技术提供了20亿美元的资助，并计划在未来几年再次提供同等数额的资金支持。（我将把这些投资的利润通过慈善事业回馈社会。）我迫不及待地期待参加COP，分享我对未来的乐观看法，并探讨我们如何既避免气候灾难，又改善当今和未来几代人的生活。