Bill Gates announces $1 billion investment to promote clean energy technology

Bill Gates, amongst a group of high-profile executives, has pledged to invest $1 billion to stimulate research and development for clean energy technology. The venture capital fund aims to bring projects to market that can provide cheap and reliable sources of energy whilst mitigating the effects of global warming.

According to Bill Gates' official blog:

We need affordable and reliable energy that doesn’t emit greenhouse gas to power the future—and to get it, we need a different model for investing in good ideas and moving them from the lab to the market.

Known as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Gates is joined by numerous investors including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The financing scheme builds on his Breakthrough Energy Coalition launched last year: a group of investors passionate about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting the goals set out by the Paris Agreement.

The venture capital fund hopes to address five key challenges: electricity, buildings, manufacturing, transportation, and food - all of which have been identified as key sources of pollution. By exploring "new partnerships with governments, businesses, and institutional investors" the fund hopes to make clean energy the norm, not the exception.

Source: Breakthrough Energy Ventures via Reuters | A photograph of Bill Gates via International Business Times