Bill Gates, investors launch US$1b clean tech fund
[WASHINGTON] Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and a group of high-profile executives are investing US$1 billion in a fund to spur clean energy technology and address global climate change a year after the Paris climate agreement.
Mr Gates launched the Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund on Monday along with billionaire entrepreneurs such as Facebook Inc head Mark Zuckerberg, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd chairman Jack Ma and Amazon.com chief Jeff Bezos.
The fund seeks to increase financing of emerging energy research and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to help meet goals set in Paris, according to a statement by the investor group known as the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.
It marked the first major investment of the coalition formed in December 2015 to spur research, development and deployment of clean energy technologies.
"We need affordable and reliable energy that doesn't emit greenhouse gas to power the future and to get it, we need a different model for investing in good ideas and moving them from the lab to the market," Mr Gates told online magazine Quartz, according to excerpts of the interview published on Gates Notes, Mr Gates's blog.
Last year Mr Gates helped launch a public-private partnership focused on scaling up investment in new and riskier clean technology that often faces steep hurdles to commercialization.
The election of Republican Donald Trump as US President has raised questions about future government spending on clean energy research and development.
Mr Trump has called climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese but has also said he has an "open mind" on the issue. "The dialogue with the new administration as it comes in about how they see energy research will be important...the general idea that research is a good deal fortunately is not a partisan thing," Mr Gates told Quartz.
On a call with reporters Monday, Mr Gates said coalition members would continue to push the message to Mr Trump that "even if you don't look at the climate change piece of this, investing makes sense."
REUTERS
KEYWORDS IN THIS ARTICLE
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Energy & Commodities
Oil jumps, equities fall as Iran blasts fan Middle East tensions
Gold set for fifth weekly gain as geopolitical risks buoy demand
Oil holds near 3-week low as US sanctions interrupt easing tensions
Seatrium unit ordered to pay US$108 million in arbitration over equipment supply contracts
BP reshapes its leadership team as some executives leave
BHP to decide on future of nickel business by August, trims met coal estimates