While the leaders in attendance are grappling with a number of burning question, one among them stands out: Can clean energy technology be created fast enough to help reduce global temperatures? Political and business leaders from around the world are in Paris Monday for a global climate summit.
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U.S. President Barack Obama said it was vital that corporations and innovators played their part in helping to tackle climate change.
Obama indicates that commitment to innovation and acquiring capital to drive down the cost of clean energy will be needed.
Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Salesforce’s Mark Benioff, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Meg Whitman joined Virgin’s Richard Branson and financier George Soros, among others, to launch the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.
Though Gates’ “Breakthrough Energy Coalition” hasn’t announced how much they’ll spend, the group has a collective net worth of $350 billion. “The existing system of basic research, clean energy investment, regulatory frameworks, and subsidies fails to sufficiently mobilize investment in truly transformative energy solutions for the future”.
According to a report by Reuters, this project rages war on the effects of climate change by ensuring that government and private organizations will commit to doubling the amount of their clean energy technology use. Gates said he is optimistic that globally we can invent the tools we need to generate clean, affordable, reliable energy that will help the poorest improve their lives and also stop climate change. “However, private industry, government and philanthropy are unlikely to succeed alone”.
Bill Gates also released details about the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.
A joint launch statement was issued with the initiative outlining the vision for each participating country.
There is no fund raising goal for private investors in the Gates initiative.
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According to government data, the USA spent about $5 billion on energy R&D in 2013, compared to $31 billion on health care research and almost $70 billion on defense research. The first implementation meeting for Mission Innovation will be held in early 2016. As all eyes are on climate change news, the coalition believes the fund pool should encourage people to reshuffle their priorities, stimulate more partners to support innovation, and jointly fight climate change.
