Bill Gates Spends IDR 179 Billion To Reduce Cow Farts

Entrepreneur and billionaire Bill Gates invest in Australian startups, (photo: Instagram @thisbillgates)

JAKARTA - Entrepreneur and billionaire Bill Gates is investing in an Australian startup, which aims to reduce methane emissions from cow burps.

Through Gates' investment firm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, disbursed USD 12 million, equivalent to IDR 179 billion, for Rumin8.

Currently, Rumin8 is working on a dietary supplement for cows designed to stop them burping and emitting methane gas.

Gates has long been an outspoken critic of cow farts, because the methane they produce on large industrial farms is one of the world's worst polluters and a greenhouse gas.

The company is also backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, who are also the richest people on the planet.

The huge farms are made up of cows, goats and deer, producing large amounts of methane after eating grass.

Rumin8's idea was to use a synthetically replicated supplement from red seaweed to stop gas.

“We are very pleased with the reception we are receiving from climate impact funds around the world. There is a genuine desire to fund solutions for enteric methane emissions from livestock and fortunately for Rumin8, they are able to see the benefits of our technology,” said Rumin8 managing director, David Messina.

Last year, the New Zealand government proposed a tax on farts and urine produced by farm animals in a bid to tackle climate change.

The rule, quoted by BBC International, Wednesday, January 25, will make farmers pay taxes on agricultural emissions by 2025, which account for half of the greenhouse gases in the island nation.

In 2019, methane in the atmosphere reached a record high, about two and a half times that of the pre-industrial era. What worries scientists is that methane has some real muscle when it comes to heating the planet.

Individual methane molecules have a stronger warming effect on the atmosphere than single CO2 molecules. Over a 100 year period, methane can cause 28 to 34 times more greenhouse gas effect than carbon dioxide, making it a major factor behind climate change.