A number of super rich entrepreneurs are setting up an investment fund with the aim of searching for clean, renewable energy.
Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and some 25 other high-profile individuals from more than 10 countries launched their Breakthrough Energy Coalition.
The objective is to provide seed money for promising ideas that may have been overlooked or rejected by the existing energy giants.
In this way, promising innovations could reach commercial viability.
Any disruption to the energy sector could mirror what each of the founders has done in their chosen business.
Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, launched the project at the climate change talks in Paris. He is reported to be putting a billion dollars into the effort.
This act was said to have prompted 20 governments to pledge to double their investment into research within five years.
Gates said there are already dozens of concepts which are “high risk but huge impact if they are successful”.
He predicted that it will take a decade to develop two or three breakthrough technologies, followed by a further two decades before such technology can become a key part of energy provision.
"If we are to avoid the levels of warming that are dangerous we need to move at full speed," he told Reuters.
