Bill Gates has pledged to invest $1.5 billion in a joint project with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to eliminate carbon in the atmosphere that causes global warming, provided that legislators approve a plan to develop new technologies in this field.
in a Interviewed by The Wall Street Journal In announcing this commitment, the co-founder of Microsoft stated that the funding will come from a fund operated by his climate-focused organization Breakthrough Energy. Expenses will be apportioned over three years. Joint projects may include work on airplanes that emit no fuel and innovations to remove carbon by capturing carbon dioxide from the air-technologies that Gates has already invested in.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate approved a $1 trillion infrastructure spending bill This includes billions of dollars for climate-related efforts. Of this amount, $25 billion is used by the U.S. Department of Energy to pay for demonstration projects supported by public-private partnerships. The proposed legislation must still pass the House of Representatives.
Gates told the Wall Street Journal that he hopes other investors will be able to raise as much as $15 billion in funding for projects supported by the U.S. Department of Energy to reduce the burden of atmospheric carbon.
He has some experience in this area: Gates and other super rich have raised US$2 billion as part of Breakthrough Energy Ventures to invest in a series of carbon emission reduction startups.
As lawmakers and billionaires are considering how to support climate investment this week, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the latest scientific research on the causes, effects and effects of global warming on Monday. This grim report warns that if we are to prevent the worst climate consequences, we must take immediate positive actions to reduce carbon emissions.
Earlier this year, Gates published a book on how to deal with the climate crisis, in which he explained the important role that government and R&D spending must play in developing technologies for a carbon-free future.
“The real value of the government’s leadership in R&D is that it can take risks on bold ideas that may fail or may not be rewarded immediately. This is especially true for scientific companies that are still too risky for the private sector. “Gates wrote.
In October, the nuclear power company TerraPower backed by Gates won $80 million in funding Advanced reactor demonstration program from the US Department of Energy. The money will help pay for the cost of building a next-generation nuclear power plant on the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power plant in Wyoming. Over the years, Gates has been lobbying Congress to participate in public-private cooperation to provide funding for nuclear power innovation.