Bill Gates, after announcing the Mission Innovation program that aims to convince all countries to double their investments in renewable energy sources, launched another major initiative at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Paris.
This coalition of revolutionary energy-saving technologies, dubbed the “Breakthrough Energy Coalition,” is backed by major technology leaders including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, and Richard Branson.
The idea is to develop a new kind of green technology that will increase energy production in the world, especially in the poorest countries, without contributing to global warming. But such technology carries the risk of being shunned by regular investors.
“We need research, but we need to combine it with people who are willing to make high-risk investments and revolutionary energy companies,” said Bill Gates.
The coalition explains that green energy technology does not fall under typical Silicon Valley due to the nearly impassable “Death of Valley” gap between promising philosophy and viable product.
While government funding is a big part of the equation, Gates and his partners believe they can play an equal role. The private sector knows how to build companies, assess the likelihood of success, and take the risks that lead to innovative ideas, the team believes.
So the group wants to invest early in promising green technology and when the high risk subsides, traditional investors will take over. It also plans to finance a wide range of technologies such as storage, generation and efficiency and intends to focus the funding on countries that invest the most in the Mission Innovation program. So far, these countries have received an additional $20 billion for the program and with private initiative also taking into account, this amount will undoubtedly increase!
Watch the relevant statements made by Bill Gates in video:
[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzDE8rTRqY4″]
