Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and a number of other prominent figures among the world's richest people are pledging a $1 billion investment fund for clean energy efforts.
The new investment fund aims to help advance clean energy production, which in turn would help fight climate change and the negative impact it has on the environment.
Breakthrough Energy Innovations
The effort is a multiyear fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which spans over the next two decades. More than a dozen prominent individuals from the technology and energy industries are backing the venture, pledging to pour funds into the futuristic, long-term clean energy technology that could drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate Change Threat
"Climate change is a serious threat, especially in the poorest parts of the world," Bill Gates explains on his Notes 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."
BEV Investors
With this in mind, Gates and other investors keen on supporting energy innovation set things in motion with BEV, funding scientific breakthroughs that could result in affordable and reliable clean energy solutions.
Investors include Amazon.com Inc. founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Virgin Group Ltd. founder Richard Branson, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. executive chairman Jack Ma, billionaire natural gas trader John Arnold, Kingdom Holding founder Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, and others.
"The Breakthrough Energy Coalition is committed to helping accelerate the cycle of innovation through investment, partnership, and thought leadership," notes the BEV description.
Gates announced the BEV Coalition last year and a number of wealthy individuals pledged to contribute to advance energy technology. This new $1 billion fund marks a concrete milestone toward keeping that promise, bringing the BEV Coalition one step closer toward achieving its clean energy goals.
Other Clean Energy Efforts
BEV is not the only venture dedicated to advancing clean energy efforts. As climate change and global warming become increasingly pressing matters, a number of other companies have made notable efforts toward clean energy solutions.
Google announced plans to power its global data centers and offices on 100 percent renewable energy starting in 2017, Tesla and SolarCity announced recently that they can power an entire island on clean energy, and the list goes on.
The world needs more electric vehicles, solar plants and renewable energy solutions to reduce the carbon footprint and counter global warming. Finding energy sources that don't produce greenhouse gas is paramount, but it won't happen overnight.
Multiyear efforts such as BEV and others envision the big picture, trying to make things right in the long run.
