Bill Gates to release clean-energy research plan at Paris climate talks

Spearheaded by Bill Gates, is a global group of private investors that will take the risks that allow the early stage energy companies that emerge from the research programmes of Mission Innovation countries to come out of the lab and into the marketplace.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are joining forces with other prominent tech figures to tackle the problem of renewable energy.

Richard Branson of UK’s Virgin Group, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Meg Whitman of Hewlett Packard are will also be part of the coalition.

Under the new funding plan, the USA commitment to clean energy technology would double to about $10 billion a year.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also one of the world’s largest philanthropic organizations however, the foundation has not been investing in clean energy initiatives until now.

Nineteen nations will pledge to double their research and development budget for clean energy technology Monday, while a coalition of the world’s richest people will help fund companies to bring that technology to the masses.

The twin initiatives were announced Monday, the opening day of United Nations talks on climate change in Paris scheduled to run through December 11.

France, the US, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada and Norway have already made a decision to participate in the “ambitious” project that will aim at developing clean energies, the French official said. This partnership is slated to be the biggest effort in history, focusing on research and developing clean energy resources and technology and can hopefully speed up a solid pact during the United Nations climate summit in Paris that will last for two weeks.

Access to clean energy technology will be in focus in the global agreement to combat climate change. It will be a historic launch of an expansion towards clean energy research and funding for its development.

“The Obama administration recognizes that this is a fundamental competitive advantage for the United States”, a former USA official said, but getting such funds approved by a Republican-controlled Congress could be hard.

“We’ll get more people to join, and so that number will go up from there”, Gates said. Improving batteries is key, and there have been breakthroughs both in technology and production announced this year, including by space and electric vehicle tycoon Elon Musk, whose Gigafactory has begun producing large batteries for home power storage to make solar and wind power more viable.

In Paris, governments are supposed to adopt a landmark deal to fight climate change and help vulnerable countries deal with rising seas, extreme weather events and other impacts of global warming.

The burning of coal, oil and gas spews heat-trapping gases that not only make the world warmer, but cause other changes in storms, rain, drought and even timing of biological life, scientists say.