Bill Gates has been accused of hypocrisy after entering a bid to buy the world’s largest private jet operator, just one month before he releases a book preaching about climate change.
The Microsoft boss’s company Cascade Investment entered the bidding war for Signature Aviation Friday, teaming up with Blackstone Group to make a $4.3 billion play for the British private jet servicing company.
Cascade and Blackstone are now going head-to-head with private equity firm Carlyle, which had already made an initial takeover approach.
Gates’ Cascade already owns a 19 percent stake in Signature making it the firm favorite to win the bid.
But news of Gates’ pursuit of the private jet firm has raised eyebrows given the company’s actions are at direct odds with his very vocal stance on climate change.
It comes just one month before Gates releases his hotly-anticipated book, ‘How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need’, where he sets out his plans for how the world can reach zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to prevent a climate crisis.
It also comes just months after he published a blog post lecturing the public that climate change ‘could be worse’ than the coronavirus pandemic.
