During last year’s campaign, President Joe Biden argued that the “United States must lead the world to take on the existential threat we face—climate change.” I agree.

I’ve learned from my work at Microsoft and in philanthropy that the best way to encourage others to take action is to start by doing it yourself. President Biden has already taken an important first step by rejoining the Paris climate accord. Now the United States can build on that step by adopting a concrete plan.

In the 15 years that I’ve been learning about and investing in clean energy, I’ve benefited from many discussions with scientists, policy experts, and elected leaders from across the political spectrum, in the United States and around the world. Drawing on those conversations, here are four ways that America and other countries can advance their leadership on climate change this year and put the world on a path to zero emissions by 2050.

  1.  Increase the supply of innovation. We need breakthroughs in the way we generate and store clean electricity, grow food, make things, move around, and heat and cool our buildings, so we can do all these things without adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
  2. Increase the demand for innovation. I learned the hard way at Microsoft that simply making a great product doesn’t guarantee that you will beat the competition. Sometimes there’s just not enough demand for what you’re selling.
  3. Work globally. Climate change is the definition of a global issue. Temperatures won’t stop going up in Texas unless emissions stop going up in India (and temperatures in India won’t stop going up until emissions stop going up in Texas).
  4. Prepare for a warming world. We’re already seeing the impact of climate change. So even as we develop and deploy ways to prevent future warming, we also need to adapt to the effects that higher temperatures are having around the world.

Read the full article about  American leadership on climate action by Bill Gates at GatesNotes.