Quotes About Development

I didn't think it was fair for anyone to tell Indians that their children couldn't have lights to study by, or that thousands of Indians should die in heat waves because installing air conditioners is bad for the environment. The only solution I could imagine was to make clean energy so cheap that every country would choose it over fossil fuels.

The Gates Foundation's whole approach to saving lives is based on the idea that we need to be pushing innovation for the poor while also increasing demand for it.

The world needs to provide more energy so the poorest can thrive, but we need to provide that energy without releasing any more greenhouse gases.

fission, carbon capture and sequestration, offshore wind, cellulosic ethanol (a type of advanced biofuel), and meat alternatives.

If you could pick just one thing to lower the price of, to reduce poverty, by far you would pick energy.

And consider how long it took for oil to become a big part of our energy supply. We started producing it commercially in the 1860s. Half a century later, it represented just 10 percent of the world's energy supply. It took 30 years more to reach 25 percent.

Natural gas followed a similar trajectory. In 1900, it accounted for 1 percent of the world's energy. It took seventy years to reach 20 percent. Nuclear fission went faster, going from 0 to 10 percent in 27 years.

This chart shows how much various energy sources grew over the course of 60 years, starting from the time they were introduced. Between 1840 and 1900, coal went from 5 percent of the world's energy supply to nearly 50 percent. But in the 60 years from 1930 to 1990, natural gas reached just 20 percent. In short, energy transitions take a long time.

CGIAR is the world's largest agricultural research group: In short, it helps create better plants and better animal genetics.

Tip: Keep the Green Premiums in mind and ask whether they're low enough for middle-income countries to pay.

Cities need to change the way they grow. Urban areas are home to more than half the people on earth—a proportion that will rise in the years ahead—and they're responsible for more than three-quarters of the world's economy. As they expand, many of the world's fast-growing cities end up building over floodplains, forests, and wetlands that could absorb rising waters during a storm or hold reservoirs of water during a drought.

The world needs to provide more energy so the poorest can thrive, but we need to provide that energy without releasing any more greenhouse gases. Now the problem seemed even harder.

It wasn't enough to deliver cheap, reliable energy for the poor. It also had to be clean.

What's most important is that the world get serious once again about advancing the field of nuclear energy. It's just too promising to ignore

China makes a lot of cement. The country has already produced more in the 21st century than the United States did in the entire 20th century. (U.S. Geological Survey)

The role of leaders is not to get other people to follow them but to empower others to lead.

Leadership is a journey, not a destination. It is a marathon, not a sprint. It is a process, not an outcome. (quoting John Donahoe)

Failure is not the opposite of success. It's a stepping stone to success.

successful leadership takes conscious development and requires being true to your life story.

Leadership is the sum total of who you are. Leaders are developed not simply born and we can all develop ourselves to be able to guide others. Anyone who follows their internal compass can become an authentic leader.

Almost seventy-five percent of our leaders have come right out of Willow. These are people who have proven their character, competence, and chemistry fit while serving in volunteer positions within our ministry.

If you're a serious-minded leader, you will read.

fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed.

small improvements come from lots of hard training, as opposed to the large improvements that came from moderate training when you were first beginning.