The billionaire’s climate initiative gets support.
(Photo: AP)
Bill Gates’ “Breakthrough Energy” project receives billions in support from business: seven large companies want to help make climate-friendly technologies a breakthrough. In doing so, they want to make a significant contribution to making the world climate neutral by 2050.
The seven companies are American Airlines, Arcelor-Mittal, Bank of America, Blackrock Foundation, Boston Consulting Group, General Motors and Microsoft. This emerges from a press release from Breakthrough Energy available to Handelsblatt. It should be published in the course of Monday.
Microsoft founder Gates launched Breakthrough Energy in 2015. Various projects are grouped under the name. They all aim to drive innovations in climate protection technologies. One of the projects deals with the development of mini nuclear power plants, others focus on storage technologies or the further development of electricity generation from renewable sources.
The Gates initiative is based on the recognition that technological leaps are required to make progress in climate protection. In the opinion of many leading scientists and organizations, the goal of climate neutrality by 2050 cannot be achieved with the technologies available today alone. Massive investments in research and development are therefore urgently required.
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The corporations want to participate in the Catalyst program as part of Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Initiative. Behind this is a model for public-private partnerships. The Catalyst program brings business, governments and philanthropists together to move closer to the goal of climate neutrality, says the Breakthrough Energy statement.
Initially, they want to focus on the areas of green hydrogen, energy storage, climate-neutral kerosene and the extraction of CO2 from the ambient air (Direct Air Capture, DAC for short).
Further partners are to be announced at the world climate conference
The Catalyst program, which was launched at the beginning of the year, has already announced partnerships with the European Commission and the US government. With the seven internationally active companies, private investors are now included.
According to Breakthrough Energy, they want to make “significant investments” in the projects and at the same time help to attract additional private investors. At the world climate conference in Glasgow in November one wants to be able to name further partners.
According to the companies involved in the project, there are currently just under $ 1 billion in commitments for direct investments in the selected technologies. With Catalyst one is able to mobilize further “billions of dollars”.
“If you consider the overall effect of this rapidly growing direct investment as well as the capital mobilized through our partnership, then the total economic value catalyzed is in the double-digit billion range and contributes to driving the introduction of these important technologies forward,” said one of the companies involved.
Participating companies represent sectors relevant to the climate
In Gates’ belief, a “new industrial revolution” is needed to avoid a climate catastrophe. “Half of the technology needed to achieve net zero emissions either doesn’t exist or is too expensive for much of the world to afford. Catalyst aims to change that and provide a more effective way to invest in our clean technology future, ”said Gates.
The consequences of climate change can be felt worldwide. Technological breakthroughs are a prerequisite for moving forward in the fight against global warming.
(Photo: dpa)
The seven companies represent a broad cross-section of the climate-relevant sectors. The initiators rely on synergy effects. “This new partnership with some of the world’s leading companies will be crucial in unlocking the potential to find, finance and scale the technology solutions that will close the gap to our key climate goals,” said Christoph Schweizer, CEO of from October Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Moving to a world of net zero emissions is “a shared responsibility of all citizens, businesses and governments,” said Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of Blackrock. “Mobilizing the $ 50 trillion in capital needed to fund the global energy transition requires innovative new partnerships in the public, private and nonprofit sectors,” added Fink.
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