The World Can't Tackle the Climate Change Crisis Without New Technologies: Bill Gates

tech.hindustantimes.com:

With a possible recession looming, Bill Gates is preparing to raise a new fund for Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) to back innovative climate startups, on the heels of two billion-dollar funds that have together helped finance roughly 100 companies.

“Even as the ebullience in investing in tech and climate companies is down a bit, I still think we'll be able to raise the money,” Gates said on the latest episode of Bloomberg Green's podcast, Zero. “It's not quite as easy as it was, say six months ago, but we're looking at a new round for the startups and a pool under Breakthrough Energy Management that does later-stage investing.”

While companies like Tesla have helped turn the electric-car dream into an increasingly mature reality, and solar and wind now provide cheaper energy than fossil-fuel alternatives, many of the technologies needed to reduce emissions in other sectors are still in their infancy. The $374 billion provided by the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to support climate- and energy-related technologies is expected to jumpstart innovation geared at addressing those challenges.

Gates hopes that his work with Breakthrough will likewise prompt a transformation of the global economy that gets us closer to a world of zero emissions. Many of the companies BEV currently invests in are trying to scale innovations in carbon-intensive but unglamorous industries, such as low-carbon cement and low-carbon steel.

“Without innovation, you will never solve climate change,” Gates said.

The Microsoft co-founder joined Zero to discuss how BEV is helping steer innovation, as well as his involvement in the IRA, which Bloomberg reported in more detail in August. He also talked about how Europe can tackle emissions while