Members of the coalition include Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and Alibaba Group executive chairman Jack Ma, among others.
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The University of California announced Sunday it is joining a coalition led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates that will invest in the research and development of clean energy technology to fight climate change.
The Breakthrough Energy Coalition announced its existence at the recently held 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. Mission Innovation’s goal is to boost the collective annual spending on energy research to $20 billion, up from $10 billion. “We won’t be able to make meaningful progress on other challenges – like educating or connecting the world – without secure energy and a stable climate”, Zuckerberg wrote. He however also says that the current rate of progress towards a sustainable energy system is “too slow”.
“All these things that enable to modern lifestyle are very energy intensive”, he said, noting that five years from now, “I see the price of energy actually being lower than today, and that’s for clean energy”.
These nations are responsible for 75 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, one of the main greenhouse gases, and more than 80 percent of the world’s investment in clean energy R&D.
The Breakthrough Energy Coalition is launching in conjunction with Mission Innovation, an initiative grouping 20 governments committed to doubling their clean energy research and development investment over five years.
“We need to be exploring many different paths-and that means we also need to invent new approaches”, he said. The new program will help cover gaps in government funding in countries, as well as help link projects with investors.
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“You need the innovation so that the cost of clean is as low or ideally lower than what coal-based energy generates”. The coalition was launched as part of “Mission Innovation”, an initiative of 19 governments including US, India, Germany, China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Denmark, Indonesia, South Korea, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Japan, UAE and UK.
