“This should help to send a strong signal that the world is committed to try to mobilize the resources necessary so countries can deploy clean-energy solutions in cost-effective ways in their economies”, said Brian Deese, senior climate change policy adviser to President Obama.
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“We can get that premium down so the idea of a clean energy generation doesn’t require the poorer countries slow down their development”, said Gates.
“He is confident that” private companies will ultimately develop energy breakthroughs, but their work will rely on the kind of basic research that only governments can fund”.
The Breakthrough Energy Coalition is made up of wealthy investors and tech influencers, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Virgin Group’s Richard Branson, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn and many more.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation declined to comment.
The timing of the announcement comes during a time when the U.N. Climate Control Conference takes place in Paris this week.
As world leaders travel to Paris for the start of the United Nations climate talks, or COP21, (covered here by The Christian Science Monitor), Bill Gates is kicking off initiatives in both the public and private sphere to fund clean energy innovation and help combat climate change.
“Given the scale of the challenge, we need to be exploring many different paths-and that means we also need to invent new approaches”, Gates wrote. “We’re not going to be in it if we don’t decide R&D is one of our core strengths”, said Hal Harvey, chief executive of clean-energy consultancy Energy Innovation, according to Tech Times. “New investments would be focused on transformational clean energy technology innovations that can be scalable to varying economic and energy market conditions that exist in participating countries and in the broader world”, the program’s website explains. Back in August, the Microsoft founder told us why he was investing $1 billion of his personal wealth in clean energy. Members of the coalition come from 10 countries, including the United States, India and China, and include billionaire George Soros, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
The world needs widely available energy that is reliable, affordable and does not produce carbon, the coalition says.
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Gates planned to join Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande to announce the initiative.
