Bill Gates to launch clean energy project on sidelines of Paris climate talks

Microsoft co-founder will announce multi-billion-dollar Initiative Cleantech on opening day of two-week climate summit alongside Barack Obama

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will launch a multi-billion-dollar clean energy research and development initiative on Monday, the opening day of the United Nations climate change summit in Paris, it was reported on Friday.

Gates and a group of developing and developed countries will agree to double their research and development budgets to boost clean energy deployment and work collaboratively, according to GreenWire, an energy and climate trade publication which cited government and business officials familiar with the agreement.

Access to clean energy technology will play a key role in a global agreement to combat climate change. More than 190 countries will negotiate a new pact in Paris from 30 November to 11 December.

Gates will join Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, US president Barack Obama and French president Franois Hollande to announce Initiative Cleantech at a side event on the opening day of the two-week climate summit, according to a summit agenda released by the French government on Friday.

For India, the worlds third-largest greenhouse gas emitter, access to clean energy technology is at the core of its national strategy to combat climate change.

India has argued that developed countries need to help poorer countries gain access to renewable energy or zero emission technologies by helping reduce incremental costs and removing barriers such as intellectual property rights.

On the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York in September, Gates attended a bilateral meeting focused on climate change between Hollande and Modi.

With people like him [Gates] getting involved, there is a real possibility of there being private-sector partnerships on the technology side, a Modi spokesman said after the meeting.

Gates has pledged $2bn of his personal wealth over the next five years to bend the curve on climate change, he said this summer.

In a blogpost in July, Gates said more breakthrough technologies are needed to combat climate change and that current technologies can only reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a beyond astronomical cost.

He said accelerating government funding for clean energy research and development is crucial to attracting private investment to the field.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/27/bill-gates-clean-energy-initiative-paris-climate-talks

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