UK and Bill Gates pledge to spend £200m each on new green technologies
The UK government and Bill Gates have pledged to spend £200m each on new green technologies today at London’s Global Investment Summit.
The £400m will go toward research and development of green technologies like green hydrogen, direct air capture and sustainable aviation fuel that are currently not viable for mass use.
Boris Johnson and Gates made the announcement today on the first day of the Global Investment Summit.
Gates said: “The UK has made immense progress in reducing carbon emissions. It’s perfect we’re doing this with the UK, because we’re going to take these technologies that are not yet economical…the green premium is very high for hydrogen, direct air capture and sustainable aviation fuel.
“With these investments we’ll make here in the UK…we will scale those up and bring down that cost so we’ll get these to the same place we are today with solar and onshore wind so they can be scaled up to bring down emissions.”
There was initial confusion about how much the total investment outlay during the panel.
The Prime Minister initially said the investment was £200m each, before the Microsoft founder corrected him and said to laughter that it was £400m each.
However, the Department for International Trade announced shortly after that the investment is indeed £400m in total.
More to follow