Bill Gates Announces $1Bil Fund for New Technology Geared Toward Climate Change

Billionaire philanthropist and technologist Bill Gates is set to announce this Monday the formation of a new fund with more than $1 billion to invest in technologies aimed at counteracting climate change.

The goal of the Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund is to finance emerging energy breakthroughs that can deliver affordable and reliable zero carbon emissions. Gates announced intentions to form such a fund back in 2015, and already had secured pledges from a variety of global investors including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Alibaba billionaire Jack Ma, and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson.

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”We need to be exploring many different paths — and that means we also need to invent new approaches,” Gates said. “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.”

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The fund is connected to the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, the fund focuses on climate-change mitigation efforts on electricity, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and buildings.

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