Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg along with a roster of other high-profile billionaires have created a new global organization aimed at spurring investment in renewable energy technologies.
Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, announced the launch of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition in a statement Sunday night ahead of the U.N. climate talks in Paris this week.
READ MORE: Trudeau arrives in Paris as UN climate conference gets underway
“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,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.
“The Breakthrough Energy Coalition will invest in ideas that have the potential to transform the way we all produce and consume energy.”
Other members of the organization include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Virgin founder Richard Branson, and Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma.
Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates wrote on his website that the private initiative will take money from 28 of the world’s wealthiest investors and provide funding for technologies that brings affordable clean energy to around the globe.
“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. “Private companies will ultimately develop these energy breakthroughs, but their work will rely on the kind of basic research that only governments can fund. Both have a role to play.”
READ MORE: US, China tout close co-ordination on climate change as global talks begin in Paris
He is also expected announce a separate clean energy program in Paris on Monday known as “Mission Innovation” alongside world leaders like U.S. President Barack Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping.
Canada is also expected to be part of the initiative that will aim to double public investments in energy research over the next five years, according to the White House and Mission Innovation website. Twenty countries, including Canada, have signed on to the program and it’s expected that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will speak on the announcement.
U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement that he was optimistic about the outcome of the climate talks in Paris.
“What we’re trying to do in Paris is put in place a long-term framework for further emissions reductions — targets set by each nation, but transparent enough to be verified by other nations,” Obama said. “And we’ll work to mobilize support to help the most vulnerable countries expand clean energy and adapt to the effects of climate change we can no longer avoid.”
Comments