How to avoid a Climate Disaster. It was born out of two things: Gates’ interest in innovation and the sciences, and “the irresistible challenge of furthering global development while reducing emissions.” Essentially the book is about how the world can achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions “in time to avoid a climate disaster”. On the very first page Gates states: “Every country will need to change its ways.” In June 2006 Gates announced that he was gradually letting go of some of his day-to-day responsibility at Microsoft to spend more time on his charitable foundation, which attends to issues of world health and education. By July 2008 he was acting as part-time chairman and technical advisor to Microsoft.