Addressing the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates talked about accelerating clean energy innovation and deployment, helping vulnerable farmers adapt to climate change and emphasised building a green revolution.

“Six years ago in Paris, I joined many of you to announce historic commitments to developing the technologies we need to stop climate change,” he said, adding that the efforts for the same are going well.

Gates said, “I started Breakthrough Energy Ventures to complement the commitment from 22 countries to increase R&D through Mission Innovation. BEV has raised over $2 billion so far and invested in more than 80 companies from 11 countries across four continents.”

However, he stated that if the world was planning to scale the innovations that get us to zero (emissions), one needs to reduce the cost difference between things that emit and things that don’t—a difference that Gates calls “Green Premium”. The cost of the transition must be low enough that the whole world could afford it.

In order to make it a successful mission, Breakthrough Energy announced the creation of Catalyst, informed Gates. The Catalyst would take care of the following:

• Harness technical expertise to scale the innovations we need.
• Connect government resources with business expertise.
• Organize philanthropic grants and equity with a low expectation of return to be the last-mile financing.
• Create certainty for investors by guaranteeing that projects will have customers.

Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate

Gates informed that even if the goal of zero-emission was reached by 2050, the impact of climate change on the world’s poorest would only get worse.

“We will lose the global fight against poverty if we don’t help vulnerable farmers adapt to climate change—which is why the Gates Foundation is proud to be a partner in the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate,” he said.

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This new coalition was launched by the United States and United Arab Emirates and now has more than 30 member countries.

Gates said, “As part of our work with AIM4C, I am announcing today that the foundation will provide an additional $315 million over the next three years to an amazing organization called CGIAR.”

Gates further emphasized the need to “build a green industrial revolution”, one that would stop climate change, protect vulnerable communities, and put the world on a path to progress.