Climate change was used to weaken and undermine the Western world – Frans Cronje

Dr Frans Cronje from The Common Sense argued on the Makin Sense podcast that Bill Gates’ change in position on climate change was one of the biggest developments of 2025.

Last year, Gates published a memorandum titled Three Tough Truths About Climate, which provided a new approach to the world’s climate strategy.

Cronje said that this was a notable shift from the ‘doomsday rhetoric’ that climate change would imminently end civilisation and cause tremendous damage to the world.

He added that doomsday narratives, including that climate change will lead to the demise of humanity, could lead to paralysis or bad policy decisions.

“Fortunately for all of us, this view is wrong. Although climate change will have serious consequences—particularly for people in the poorest countries—it will not lead to humanity’s demise,” said Gates.

“People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future. Emissions projections have gone down, and with the right policies and investments, innovation will allow us to drive emissions down much further,” he added.

Gates’ new position prioritises human welfare and adaptation over strict adherence to temperature-based emissions targets.

Cronje said this was significant because the threat of climate change and the hysteria around it were the primary tools to argue against economic freedom and capitalism.

“Climate change was used to say you cannot have more energy and you should not have more investment,” he said.

“They said growth was not a good thing in its own right because the damage to the planet was simply too big.”

Gates’ change of tone for these climate change policies took the wind out of the sails of the lobby groups, as he gave many of them legitimacy.

“This is incredibly good for the Western World. The non-Western World did not fall for any of this to begin with,” Cronje said.

He cited carbon emissions graphs from China, India, and Russia, which continued to rise despite numerous interventions aimed at addressing climate change.

“It was only some Western democracies which bought into this with sufficient sincerity to undermine the standing and competitiveness of their economies,” he said.

It was dangerous because it made the Western and free world less competitive than the non-free world.

He added that climate change was used by the adversaries of the free and Western world to weaken and undermine it.

The consequences of Western democracies buying into the climate change hysteria were very bad, Cronje said.

It included the increase in energy prices in many European countries and the rise of the hard right in these countries as a consequence.

“For 20 years, the climate change hysteria was the primary vehicle through which to launch attacks against the long-term sustainability of the Western liberal order,” he said.

“When Gates rescinded his position, he diluted those arguments sufficiently that it gave a real shot in the arm to the competitiveness of Western liberal societies.”