The new initiative will research and develop artificial photosythenthesis, using sunlight to produce liquid hydrocarbons that could replace fossil fuels, according to Gates.
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Gates has doubled his portfolio of energy investments to $2 billion and has helped to persuade 20 governments to commit to doubling their own research and development investments by 2020.
Billions of dollars are expected to be invested into this initiative which aims to bring down the cost of cleaner energy.
Renewable and clean energy is already being invested in at the Facebook facilities, but Zuckerberg wants to invest in long term projects that the government and other companies do not fund. The 19 make up about 80 percent of clean energy research and development spending in the world and 75 percent of global emissions of C02. He added that he was “optimistic that we can invent the tools we need” to battle climate change while “providing energy to the world’s poor”.
U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Mission Innovation initiative on the first day of the United Nations climate summit in Paris. Yet progress towards a sustainable energy system is too slow, and the current system doesn’t encourage the kind of innovation that will get us there faster.
“We can’t ask for a better partner than the University of California Office of the President and the Office of the Chief Investment Officer to help accomplish the Breakthrough Energy Coalition’s ambitious goal”, Gates said in a statement.
Readers: What are your initial thoughts on the Breakthrough Energy Coalition? Other investors include Nigerian Aliko Dangote (who the story says is Africa’s richest man), Jack Ma of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman.
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A separate, independent initiative being launched at the same time, dubbed the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, involves a group of private investors headed by Bill Gates that will market the Mission Innovation programs.
