However, this progress has not translated into significant reductions in greenhouse gas pollution. Meanwhile, geopolitical strife and global economic headwinds are complicating efforts to keep rising global temperatures under control.
Gates mainly focuses on the promising industry and investment trends he has seen. He said he and other investors in his original $1 billion fund, including Jeff Bezos and Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr, were concerned when they launched in 2015 that they wouldn’t find promising startups to invest in. But the company is now backing more than 100 companies work on long-term energy storage, meat alternatives, efficient buildings, clean steel and other means to reduce emissions.
Gates said he was “surprised” by the progress he’s seen on some of climate change’s toughest engineering challenges over the past seven years.
Breakthrough Energy closed its second $1 billion fund in 2021, and Gates said the company plans to “do a lot more.” It has also extended its mission beyond investments by promoting policies, make friendshipand support other climate efforts.
Gates noted that venture capital investments in clean energy, which neared a price decline around 2015, have made a comeback, and that wind, solar, and lithium-ion batteries have made a comeback. continued to drop sharply in terms of costs.
In a follow-up session at the event, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced a trio of new US legislation: the Inflation Reduction Act, the Science and CHIPS Act, and the Infrastructure Investment Act. Floors and Jobs.
She described them as “game changers” that will accelerate the nation’s transition to clean energy and boost the US economy, adding that they have already begun to spur investments. billions of dollars worth of American manufacturing facilities.
Granholm said the Department of Energy is currently working to launch the construction of low-carbon hydrogen hubs, grid energy storage projects and plants that can suck carbon dioxide out of the air, creating a ” bridge to banking capabilities” for these emerging industries.
