This week, representatives from world governments are meeting in Paris for the much-anticipated United Nations summit on climate change.
Ahead of those talks–which are intended to create a global strategy for radically reducing carbon emissions–some of the world’s richest people announced their own plan to slow climate change.
More than 20 billionaires, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, signed on to the new Breakthrough Energy Coalition.
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Members of the group have pledged to invest in clean energy in order to accelerate its advancement, according to Forbes.
In statements on its website, the coalition says the urgency of climate change requires an aggressive program of investment to quickly expand clean-energy adoption.
It styles itself as a public-private partnership, claiming that current levels of government funding are inadequate for meaningful continued development of clean-energy technologies.
wind farm
In addition to Gates and Zuckerberg, other members of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition include Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, HP CEO Meg Whitman, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, and Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
The coalition has not publicly discussed the dollar amount its members plan to invest in clean energy, the planned duration of their investments, or any specific areas or projects that might be prioritized.
Gates and world leaders will also announce a clean-energy research initiative called Mission Innovation in Paris.
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He describes it as a “commitment by more than 10 countries to invest more in research on clean energy.”
The countries involved include the U.S., Brazil, China, Japan, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and others.
Each country will pledge to double government investment in clean-energy research, and to be transparent about those research efforts.
Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
The Breakthrough Energy Coalition will reportedly work with the countries involved in the Mission Innovation agreement.
Outside the arena of the UN Paris climate-change talks, meanwhile, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo both recently announced that they will cut investments in the coal industry.
Under a new policy, Wells Fargo committed to reduced lending to coal-mining companies.
Morgan Stanley went further, cutting both lending and underwriting, and committing to end financing of coal-fired power plant construction “in developed countries.”
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