Tech leaders from around the world which include Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson and more have formed an alliance called ‘Breakthrough Energy Coalition’ to provide clean sustainable energy. By doing so, the group’s members have promised to use a substantial portion of their net worth to invest in providing clean energy to the masses and combat the issue of climate change.
The Breakthrough Energy Coalition announced its existence at the recently held 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. It’s made up of more than 25 investors from 10 countries that include governments, universities, entrepreneurs and CEO’s from around the world to combat climate change and invest in early-stage clean energy companies.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who’s a part of the coalition, says that there’ll be 50 percent more demand for energy than what we are using today, most of which is produced by conventional fossil fuels such as coal and oil. He further added that some ‘serious cash’ is needed to get clean sustainable energy as a viable alternative for fossil fuels.
“The renewable technologies we have today, like the wind and solar, have made a lot of progress and could be one path to a zero-carbon energy future,” he said. “But given the scale of the challenge, we need to be exploring many different paths – and that means we also need to invent new approaches. 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.”
Global Investment to provide clean energy has increased to $270 billion in last year, and the new alliance will make sure funds are invested in the most strategic manner in renewable technologies like solar, the wind, hydro and biofuel.
“[P]rogress 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,” Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “We already invest in renewable and clean energy for our Facebook facilities today, but we believe that building a positive future for the next generation also means investing in long-term projects that companies and governments don’t fund.”
