Bill Gates announces the ‘Breakthrough Energy Coalition’

(EurActiv, 30 Nov 2015) As COP21 opened in Paris today (30 November), Bill Gates announced the “Breakthrough energy coalition” uniting the efforts of two dozens of other billionaire philanthropists such as Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos to sponsor energy that doesn’t produce carbon.

Gates will be present in Paris together with US President Barack Obama, the White House reported to be familiar and supportive of the initiative.

Nineteen governments, including the United States, China and India, will join in a “Mission Innovation” initiative that commits governments to a doubling of public investments in basic energy research over the next five years, Obama administration officials quoted by the Washington Post said.

The 19 countries that signed up for the initiative include the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases and collectively represent more than 80% of current global spending on energy research. In addition to the United States, China and India, the group includes Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

“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 said.

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EurActiv, 30 Nov 2015: Bill Gates announces the ‘Breakthrough Energy Coalition’