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☆ Bill Gates says he isn't a hypocrite for using a private jet
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bill Gates was asked whether his private jet makes him a "hypocrite" while funding climate innovation. Gates disagreed, saying he pays for carbon offsets and his jet helps further his climate fundraising. Gates was asked in an interview with the BBC in Kenya what his response would be to someone who would call him a hypocrite for being a "climate change campaigner" while also flying "around the world in a private jet." On Reddit, the Microsoft cofounder has said his private jet is his "guilty pleasure" and his "big splurge." "That is too difficult," Gates told Bloomberg's Zero podcast.

☆ Scientists can spike startup bets in Planet A's new $172 million climate tech fund even if they have a good business case. Check out the 20-slide LP deck it used to raise the fresh cash.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

German VC Planet A has just closed its first 160 million euros (around $172 million) fund. Planet A, a European venture capital firm, has just closed its inaugural 160 million euros (around $172 million) fund to back startups doing just that. Founded in 2020, Planet A is looking for market-ready tech startups with significant impact potential in climate change mitigation, waste reduction, resource savings, and biodiversity protection. The early-stage investor will write checks of between 500,000 euros to 3 million euros to startups in Europe, the UK, and Israel. The Planet A team intended to raise 100 million euros, Detzner said, so the fund was oversubscribed.

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☆ Bill Gates on why he'll carry on using private jets and campaigning on climate change
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

During a recent interview with the BBC, the billionaire said rich countries needed "to get their emissions down to zero as fast as they can." Bill Gates does not agree that using a private jet and campaigning on the issue of climate change represents a contradiction open to allegations of hypocrisy. It says it "uses a technology called 'direct air capture' to capture carbon dioxide directly from the air." Gates has previously spoken about using Climeworks to "pay for direct air capture." "So a new way of making cement or steel, you know, electric passenger cars, that's all in the rich countries."

☆ EV battery maker ONE raises $300 million, now valued at $1.2 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Paul Lienert | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Workers are seen at the production line of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EV) at a factory in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, China August 28, 2018. REUTERS/StringerFeb 1 (Reuters) - Michigan-based battery startup Our Next Energy (ONE) on Wednesday said it closed a $300 million Series B funding round that takes the three-year-old company’s valuation to $1.2 billion. The latest round, led by investors Franklin Templeton and Fifth Wall, makes Our Next Energy one of the most valuable privately held battery companies in the United States. Investors in the latest round include Temasek, Coatue, Riverstone Holdings, AI Capital Partners and Sente Ventures. The Series B round included an earlier $62.5 million convertible note closed with BMW iVentures, Assembly Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Volta Energy Technologies, Flex and Coatue.

☆ Microsoft and ArcelorMittal back MIT spinout trying to green the $1.6 trillion steel industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The $1.6 trillion steel industry is the backbone of the modern world. That's why massive global businesses, including international steel giant ArcelorMittal and tech stalwart Microsoft , are investing in Boston Metal, a company that spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and developed a new way of making clean steel. "There is no economy, there is no infrastructure without steel," Boston Metal CEO Tadeu Carneiro told CNBC in a video call on Wednesday. The same year they launched a company, Boston Electrometallurgical Corp., to scale and commercialize that technology. He is a veteran of 40 years career in the steel industry, mostly at Brazilian metals giant CBMM.

☆ Bill Gates just invested in a startup that's trying to stop cows from burping and farting so much
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures led a $12 million seed funding round into Rumin8. The Perth-based startup is developing a seaweed-based feed aiming to cut methane from livestock emissions — like the burps and farts of cows. As livestock accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, there are now global efforts to farm such animals more sustainably. "There are companies making 'beef' in new ways and people working to still use cows but reduce the methane emissions," Gates wrote in the thread. Last week, French food giant Danone pledged to slash methane emissions from its milk-supplying farms by about one-third by the end of this decade.

☆ Check out the exclusive pitch deck food waste startup Mill used to raise $100 million from Google Ventures and others
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The startup has already raised about $100 million from investors like Google Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon, and Prelude. "There's a lot of parallels to the story of Nest," Rogers said. However, because Mill handles the entire process from homes to farms, it faces many challenges not found in other food waste startups, Rogers said. And although the company's coffers are well-stocked in a tough market environment, Rogers told Insider that he's always open to conversations with investors. Here's an exclusive look at the 7-slide pitch deck Mill used to raise $100 million from Google Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Lowercarbon, and Prelude:

☆ Bill Gates: We will overshoot 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, nuclear can be 'super safe' and fake meat will eventually be 'very good'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The world will not be able to avoid overshooting the goal established in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-Industrial levels, according to Bill Gates. The billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder answered questions from Reddit users on Wednesday and a handful of the questions revolved around climate change. A report out at the end of October from the United Nations Environment Program found "no credible pathway to 1.5° Celsius in place." Gates also said bedraggled climate mitigation efforts will "slow down the progress we make on improving the human condition." Despite Gates' dour outlook, he also maintains some amount of optimism: "I still believe we can avoid a terrible outcome," he said.

☆ Bill Gates' climate investment firm is backing this reusable rocket startup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Diana Olick | In Dianaolick | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Stoke Space is developing a clean-fueled, rapidly reusable rocket that can deliver satellites into earth's orbit, while protecting the earth itself by creating fewer emissions. Stoke Space is still in the first stages of testing the rocket and is a long way off from taking satellites into space. But its plans are ambitious and built around the idea of launching more satellites to combat climate change. We started thinking many years ago around how do we deploy more satellites focused on climate problems? In addition to Breakthrough Energy, investors include Spark capital, Toyota Ventures, Point72 Ventures, MaC Venture Capital and NFX Ventures.

☆ The U.S. passed a historic climate deal this year — here's a recap of what's in the bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

The IRA's provisions have major implications for clean energy and manufacturing businesses, climate startups and consumers in the coming years. As 2022 comes to a close, here's a look back at the key elements in the legislation that climate and clean energy advocates will be monitoring in 2023. Taking aim at methane gas emissionsSome pumpjacks operate while others stand idle in the Belridge oil field near McKittrick, California. Mario Tama | Getty ImagesThe package imposes a tax on energy producers that exceed a certain level of methane gas emissions. And the bill has a hydrogen production tax credit, which provides hydrogen producers with a credit based on the climate attributes of their production methods.

☆ Form Energy to build long-duration battery plant in West Virginia
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Form Energy Inc, a startup hoping to make long-duration storage batteries from materials including iron to store power from renewable energy, will partner with West Virginia to build a manufacturing plant in the state, the company and politicians said on Thursday. West Virginia Governor Jim Justice and Form Energy, backed by supporters including Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures, said the plant will be built with a total investment of up to $760 million. Form Energy aims to build batteries using iron, air and water. Form says the batteries can store power for days, much longer than ones based on lithium-ion, and using less expensive materials. "The path forward is innovation, not elimination, and with this announcement West Virginia and Form Energy are doing just that," Manchin said in a statement.

☆ Bill Gates upbeat on climate innovation, even if 1.5C goal out of reach
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Katy Daigle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The software-developer-turned-philanthropist was nevertheless upbeat about climate innovation - ticking off numerous areas advancing low-carbon technologies with funding from the Breakthrough Energy Group, which Gates founded in 2015. Gates has invested more than $2 billion toward climate technologies, including direct air capture, solar energy and nuclear fission. Breakthrough Energy, however, operates separately from the Gates Foundation charity. But any Breakthrough Energy profits are funneled back into the group or to the foundation. He did not elaborate on the DAC companies' plans.

☆ Bill Gates: 'Our grandchildren will grow up in a world that is dramatically worse off' if we don't fix climate change
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates delivers his speech at the National Assembly on August 16, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea. "Simply typing that phrase, 'I'll become a grandfather next year,' makes me emotional," Gates writes. How well the current generation of leaders respond to climate change will impact future generations, which is the first point Gates makes in the section of his letter where he addresses climate change. "I can sum up the solution to climate change in two sentences: We need to eliminate global emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050," Gates writes. "Extreme weather is already causing more suffering, and if we don't get to net-zero emissions, our grandchildren will grow up in a world that is dramatically worse off."

☆ Billionaire-backed KoBold Metals to invest in Zambia copper mine
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Mingomba contains 247 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 3.64% copper, according to KoBold. Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema wants to boost the country's copper production to 3 million tonnes a year by 2032, from around 850,000 tonnes currently. As Africa's second-largest producer of copper, Zambia is highly dependent on mining. "Our message to the world is that Zambia is here, and is open for business," Hichilema said as he announced the deal at the summit. The deal, which will grant KoBold a majority stake in Mingomba, is set to close in the first quarter of 2023.

☆ Microsoft-backed start-up Heirloom uses limestone to capture CO2
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Diana Olick | In Dianaolick | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

California-based startup Heirloom has a different approach: using limestone to capture CO2 from the atmosphere. Heirloom removes that CO2 by heating the limestone into a powder and stores the extracted CO2 underground. Heirloom spread that powder out on trays, with a robot determining location for maximum CO2 absorption. "We basically just give super powers to limestone to pull a lot more CO2 much, much faster," said Samala. Heirloom says it plans to deploy its first site next year and aims to remove 1 billion tons of CO2 by 2035.

☆ Check out the pitch deck Dandelion Energy, a green-energy company that began at Google's research division X, used to raise $70 million
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Dandelion Energy came out of a project that started years ago at X, Google's research effort. Dandelion Energy could provide a way for homeowners to defray these costs. In 2015, Dandelion Energy started as a project of what was then known as Google X, now just X, Google's research arm. Dandelion Energy has raised a total of about $136 million, according to PitchBook, from investors including LenX, the venture division of the homebuilding company Lennar, according to the company. Take a look at the pitch deck Dandelion Energy used to raise $70 million in new funding.

☆ Palm oil is in almost everything, and it's devastating rainforests. This Bill Gates-backed company used microbes to create an alternative
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Palm oil grows best in the regions right around the equator, so palm oil producers chop down rainforest and clear that felled vegetation by burning it, making it a prime target of conservation organizations like the Rainforest Rescue and the World Wildlife Fund. Palm oil trees grow at the Cikasungka palm oil plantation, operated by PT Perkebunan Nusantara VIII, in Bogor Regency in West Java, Indonesia, on Monday, June 20, 2022. To make its palm oil alternative, C16 Biosciences uses a wild yeast microbe that makes a functional equivalent to palm oil with a kind of fermentation process. Photo courtesy: Cat Clifford, CNBCChemically, the palm oil that C16 Biosciences makes is not identical to the palm oil that is grown in industrial agriculture farms. However, "it contains the same fatty acids, which are the molecular fingerprints of fats and oils, that palm oil does," Heller told CNBC.

☆ This startup seals your leaky home so you waste less energy and reduce your bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Diana Olick | In Dianaolick | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Leaky homes and buildings are some of the greatest climate offenders, but a Dayton, Ohio-based start-up is making big gains in shoring up the problem. Aeroseal, which seals both air ducts and building envelopes, is now available across America and in 29 countries. Leaky airducts and walls are the single largest reason for wasted energy in homes. Reducing that wasted energy not only lowers consumers' bills, but also reduces emissions associated with energy production, which are a significant contributor to climate change. Aeroseal has so far raised about $30 million in venture capital from the likes of Breakthrough Energy, Energy Impact Partners, Building Ventures and 2150.

☆ Companies are making climate pledges they don't have the capacity to keep, Microsoft President Brad Smith says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft Corp., speaks during a climate initiative event at the Microsoft Corp. campus in Redmond, Washington, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. SEATTLE — Companies are on the hot seat to respond to climate change like never before, but most corporate leaders don't have the tools necessary to meet those pledges, said Microsoft President Brad Smith last week at the inaugural Breakthrough Energy Summit in Seattle. "By our count, 3,470 companies around the world have signed up for a climate pledge," said Smith. That stage of the industry, often called carbon accounting, is also "in this incredibly nascent stage," Smith said, and companies don't have enough workers with the right skillsets to help accelerate their progress, Smith noted. As the industry matures, tools will emerge to help with tracking, but with so much uncertainty today, some companies avoid making climate pledges at all, according to Greg Guyett, co-CEO of global banking and markets at HSBC.

☆ Investor Vinod Khosla says focusing on 2030 climate targets is the wrong approach
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Why Khosla thinks short-term goals are a mistakeFocusing on "short term goals will force us to deploy suboptimal technology," Khosla told CNBC. And if it doesn't do that, it's the wrong technology," Khosla told CNBC. Nuclear fusion is one example of the kind of breakthrough technology Khosla considers critical, but which will not be commercialized by 2030. "But I'm not interested in today's geothermal, because it is such a niche — it doesn't scale," Khosla told CNBC. And that's what we need," Khosla said.

☆ Bill Gates' climate investment firm will put more money into adapting to climate change
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Eric Toone, one half of the investing committee at Breakthrough Energy, speaks to conference attendees at the breakthrough Energy Summit in Seattle on Wednesday October 19, 2022. Photo by Cat Clifford, CNBCSEATTLE — Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the climate technology investment firm started by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, will begin to invest more in companies that help people and businesses adapt to the consequences of climate change. "We're left with adaptation," Toone told the audience. But Breakthrough Energy Ventures is most certainly not a philanthropic organization. And in the past, the Gates Foundation has done a lot of work on adaptation," Toone told a group of reporters in a media briefing in Seattle.

☆ A Bill Gates fund invested $50 million in a startup that's building a massive refinery to turn alcohol into jet fuel
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Stephen Jones | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Bill Gates fund invested $50 million in a startup making sustainable aviation fuel from ethanol. Sustainable aviation fuel is being explored by airlines as a way of making the industry more environmentally friendly. The Soperton facility, known as the Freedom Pines Fuel Plant, is set to begin production in 2023. LanzaJet said the plant would produce nine million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel, and one million gallons of renewable diesel, per year when fully-operational. The company said it will lower emissions by at least 70% compared with conventional aviation fuel.

☆ We need to make the 'green way' far less expensive than it is today, says Breakthrough Energy Founder Bill Gates
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWe need to make the 'green way' far less expensive than it is today, says Breakthrough Energy Founder Bill GatesMicrosoft founder, billionaire investor and philanthropist Bill Gates joins ‘The Exchange’ to discuss ESG investing, and where he sees opportunities in the market right now and his vision for a 'net-zero' future.

☆ Watch CNBC's full interview with Breakthrough Energy Founder Bill Gates
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Ylan Mui | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWatch CNBC's full interview with Breakthrough Energy Founder Bill GatesMicrosoft founder, billionaire investor and philanthropist Bill Gates joins ‘The Exchange’ to discuss ESG investing, and where he sees opportunities in the market right now and his vision for a 'net-zero' future.

☆ Bill Gates says investment in innovation is the important part of ESG
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Tuesday addressed the issue of businesses that exaggerate environmental, social and governance credentials, arguing that though corporate sustainability credentials are often controversial, they are still critical for assessing whether to invest in a company. To me, it's not so much who you don't invest in but who you do invest in," Gates said during an interview with CNBC's Diana Olick. "I give people strong points where they're making those investments and becoming customers of those green technologies," Gates said. Global ESG funds received a record $649 billion in investments in 2021 through Nov. 30, up from $542 billion in 2020 and $285 billion in 2019, according to financial services firm Refinitiv Lipper. Definitions of ESG often vary and difficult to measure, creating issues for businesses looking to boast their sustainability credentials to investors.

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