Bill Gates Expected to Create Billion Dollar Fund for Clean Energy
By CORAL DAVENPORT

WASHINGTON — Bill Gates will announce the creation of a multibillion-dollar clean energy fund on Monday at the opening of a Paris summit meeting intended to forge a global accord to cut planet-warming emissions, according to people with knowledge of the plans.

The fund, which one of the people described as the largest such effort in history, is meant to pay for research and development of new clean-energy technologies. It will include contributions from other billionaires and philanthropies, as well as a commitment by the United States and other participating nations to double their budget for clean energy research and development, according to the people with knowledge of the plans, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the fund.

The announcement of the fund, which has the joint backing of the governments of the United States, China, India and other countries, the people said, is intended to give momentum to the two-week Paris climate talks.

Negotiators hope to strike a deal committing every nation to enacting policies to reduce fossil fuel emissions. Mr. Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, will join more than 100 world leaders, including President Obama, in Paris on Monday to begin the talks.

The pending announcement was first reported by ClimateWire, an online news organization. A spokesman for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.

If successful, the Paris meeting could spur a fundamental shift away from the use of oil, coal and gas to the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. But that transition would require major breakthroughs in technology and huge infrastructure investments by governments and industry.

Where that money would come from has been a question leading up to the Paris talks. Developing countries like India, the third-largest fossil fuel polluter, have pushed for commitments by developed nations to pay for their energy transition, either through direct government spending or through inexpensive access to new technology.

India has emerged as a pivotal player in the Paris talks. The announcement by Mr. Gates appears intended to help secure India’s support of a deal.

As secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged that developed countries would send $100 billion annually to poor countries by 2020 to help them pay for the energy transition. Indian officials have demanded that the Paris deal lock in language that the money would come from public funds — a dealbreaker for rich countries.

This summer, Mr. Gates pledged to spend $1 billion of his personal fortune on researching and deploying clean energy technology, but the people with knowledge of his plans said the new fund would include larger commitments.

In a blog post in July, Mr. Gates wrote: “If we create the right environment for innovation, we can accelerate the pace of progress, develop and deploy new solutions, and eventually provide everyone with reliable, affordable energy that is carbon free. We can avoid the worst climate-change scenarios while also lifting people out of poverty, growing food more efficiently and saving lives by reducing pollution.”

Mr. Gates met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. In a June meeting in Paris, Mr. Gates told President François Hollande of France that the Paris deal should include robust provisions on clean energy research and development.

“Bill’s been making that point for years, and he’s going to make it more emphatically in Paris,” said Hal Harvey, chief of Energy Innovation, an energy consultancy. Mr. Harvey noted that at the core of the emerging Paris agreement are plans and pledges already put forth by more than 170 countries detailing how they will reduce emissions.

“If you tote up the plans, you see a very significant demand signal, and Bill wants to see that we meet that cheaply,” he said.

比爾蓋茲斥鉅資「潔淨能源」

聯合國氣候變化綱要公約第廿一次締約國會議（COP21）卅日在巴黎登場，微軟創辦人比爾蓋茲（Bill Gates）打頭陣，將在峰會首日提出設立數十億美元潔淨科技研發基金的「潔淨科技倡議」（Clean Tech Initiative）。法國外長法畢斯呼籲各國弭平歧見，並在峰會閉幕前6天（12月5日）達成最終協議，展現出法國對「巴黎協議」必可談成深具信心。

消息人士透露，蓋茲將宣布的這項基金將用來研發新潔淨能源科技，金額以10億美元計。這筆史上最大的潔淨能源研發基金由多位億萬富翁、慈善家挹注，並獲有美國、中國大陸、印度等多國政府讓潔淨能源研發預算倍增的承諾。美國目前每年相關預算為50億美元。蓋茲今夏承諾未來5年捐出20億美元財產抑制氣候變遷。

190國的協商代表和近百位領袖卅日將齊聚巴黎，討論減少溫室氣體排放、緩和全球暖化危機的方法。法畢斯呼籲各國在下月5日弭平歧見，達成最終協議。他說：「峰會第一周將致力減少協議內文的許多選項，（協議草案中，針對各項議題列出不同的替換措詞）。我希望最終協議能在下月5日中午前交給身為大會主席的本人。」

但外界對法畢斯的期限說抱持懷疑態度，通常聯合國協商都在截止期限過後一兩天才有成果。

法畢斯說，巴黎會議就各國承諾的減排數量和行動而言已屬一大勝利，若整合這些努力，我們能避免災難；若不作為，地球升溫（本世紀結束之前與工業革命之前相比）恐達攝氏5、6度，但我們希望達成把上升溫度限制在兩度或1.5度以下的目標。

巴黎峰會可能刺激人們從燃煤燒油轉為使用再生能源，但這需要政府及產業界投資於科技及基本建設。資金從何而來是巴黎峰會的一大疑問。

美國前國務卿希拉蕊．柯林頓曾在任內呼籲已開發國家，在2020年前每年贊助窮國1000億美元，幫助窮國轉換能源。印度官員要求各國在巴黎協議中載明款項來自公款，富國卻認為這會是使協商破局的關鍵。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/us/politics/bill-gates-expected-to-create-billion-dollar-fund-for-clean-energy.html

2015-11-29．聯合報．A1．要聞．編譯陳韻涵