I have heard/read many motives for their desire to depopulate, including:

1. They simply hate the masses of people and want the world and its various riches to themselves. (But this is just too 2-dimensional for me... I think there would be just as many good-hearted elites who would be the opposite).

2. They really do fear that the population growth will ruin the world. (Again, too 2-dimensional).

3. They're just really THAT evil (power, greed, control, etc.). (Meh... I don't buy into the James Bond bad guy thing).

4. They are Satanists and doing it to serve Lucifer, causing pain and misery in his name. (This is very plausible, but I also thing that there are many who are not evil, so I don't think the evil ones would have such an easy time of this.)

5. Maybe they know something that most people don't about the earth's geological, magnetic and climate patterns, especially with relation to the sun's cycles, and they know we are approaching an extinction level event, so they are culling the population so as to more easily control it to survive. (This is also very plausible in my mind... such that everything is an absolute distraction from people learning about this--because if they did, all civil law would break down).

6. A combination of the above?

Other motives?

I realize we can never know the exact motive unless it's in hindsight and we are (hopefully) looking down from heaven... but that doesn't mean we can't discuss it!