Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Commission Pushing Clean Energy
Bill Gates, 28 deep-pocketed private investors, and a number of governments are contributing billions of dollars to new global fast-track early-stage capital funds to overcome the steep upfront capital costs of renewable energy investments that have been a barrier to the development of new energy markets and projects. The group is diverse with business people including Aliko Dangote, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. chairman and founder Jack Ma, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co. Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman, Aliko Dangote, founder of Nigeria’s Dangote Group, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and George Soros.
According to Gates, “I am optimistic that 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.” The new group will fast track early-stage clean energy technologies.
Making Zero Carbon Energy Technologies Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels
In addition to Gates’ initiative, governments from around the world are also committing resources to clean energy startups and projects. According to Robert Atkinson of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), “we are very pleased that policymakers around the world are committing to increase clean energy innovation, because the only plausible way to curb greenhouse emissions is to make clean energy technologies more affordable than fossil fuels.”
In the following video, Bill Gates discusses the innovations needed to solve climate change.
