As representatives from 195 nations descended on Paris in December and concluded a landmark agreement to curb climate change, government leaders and billionaires from around the world announced separate initiatives to accelerate the development and deployment of new clean energy technologies. The heads of 20 nations pledged to double their countries’ funding for energy R&D over five years, and 27 billionaires, including Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Alibaba chairman Jack Ma, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, joined forces to form the Breakthrough Energy Coalition and promised to invest their resources to commercialize fledgling energy technologies.
No dollar amount was specified for the public or private efforts, but the countries’ pledges reportedly would increase R&D spending by $8 billion annually over five years, with $4 billion of that to come from the US. In a November interview in the Atlantic, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who organized the Breakthrough Energy Coalition,...
