肯定不能使用老式的风力涡轮机。

在谈到气候技术创新的重要性时，奥巴马总统强调指出：“事实是，如果我们对现有技术进行调整……仍将存在一个很大的鸿沟需要填补”。

微软公司(Microsoft)的共同创办人比尔·盖茨(Bill Gates)说，需要用“酷技术”来填补这一空白，并且要尽快行动。盖茨和一个全球投资者群体共同帮助组建了“突破性能源联盟”(Breakthrough Energy Coalition)，以确定和开发清洁能源战略，为包括非洲企业家和印度以及中国创新者在内的所有人降低成本。据盖茨说，这是有史以来第一次将研究和开发纳入国际气候谈判会议议程。

与盖茨一起加入这个行列的还有中国电子商务巨擎阿里巴巴集团董事长马云、脸书（Facebook）的马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)，以及拉坦·塔塔(Ratan Tata)，塔塔于2012年卸去印度最大企业集团之一塔塔集团董事长职务，现负责运营该公司的慈善信托基金。

尼日利亚的丹格特集团(Dangote Group)创始人及联盟成员阿里科·丹格特(Aliko Dangote)说：“全球迫切需要一场专注于清洁能源的新经济革命”。丹格特将他的水泥企业建成了西非最大的一家产业集团，他将他的成功部分归功于他为集团业务对一家独立电网的投资。在最近一次采访中，他将缺乏可靠电力称为对非洲企业最大的威胁。

该联盟目前包括28个世界上最大的投资者，并承诺对一些变革性创意及早进行投资。据盖茨介绍，这可能包括在涂料方面的投资，这些涂料能够将任何表面能量转化到太阳能电池中，用于聚变发电，或称为“液流电池”(flow batteries)，这种电池让太阳能电池板能在天黑之后储存电力。

该联盟将帮助企业越过“死亡之谷”：即实验室中的成功与取代现有碳排放技术的成功之间的虚拟峡谷。

盖茨说：“最终将由私人公司来开发这些突破性能源技术。但他们的工作将依赖于只有政府才能够资助的一些基础研究。”

不可能完成的任务？

包括中国、印度、美国、印度尼西亚和巴西在内的20国政府已承诺在未来五年内将清洁能源的研究和开发翻一番。这个“创新使命”(Mission Innovation)计划将每年投资200亿美元加强基础研究，探索通往后碳时代的希望之路。

私营部门的“突破性能源联盟”将着眼于“创新使命”国家的技术开发，这目前占全球清洁能源研究的80%。

奥巴马总统介绍了这种行之有效的模式：自2009年以来，政府支持的研究及私人投资已经使风力发电量翻了三番，并使太阳能发电量翻了20几番。在美国的某些地区，这种新能源比传统的碳基发电成本更低。

奥巴马总统说：“我们知道，如果我们汇集最优秀的人才并以雄厚的资金做后盾，我们就会找到行之有效的方式。我们在过去一直都能做到，这一次我们也将能做到”。

请登录@US_Center了解更多关于2015年第21届气候变化大会达成的气候协议，并了解“突破性能源联盟”着手投资之后的清洁能源前景。


Combating climate change with cool tech

How is the world going to reach the climate goals of COP21?

Not with your grandmother’s wind turbines.

“The truth is, if we adapt existing technologies … there’s still going to be a big gap to fill,” said President Obama about the importance of climate innovation.

“Cool technologies” need to fill the gap, and fast, says Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Together with a global group of investors, Gates helped form the Breakthrough Energy Coalition to spot and develop clean energy strategies that drive down costs for everyone, from entrepreneurs in Africa to innovators in India and China. According to Gates, this is the first time research and development has been on the agenda at international climate talks.

Joining him is Jack Ma, chairman of the Alibaba Group, China’s giant e-commerce company; Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg; and Ratan Tata, who stepped down as chairman of the Tata Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, in 2012 to run the firm’s charitable trusts.

“The world urgently needs a new economic revolution” focused on clean energy, said coalition member Aliko Dangote, founder of Nigeria’s Dangote Group. Dangote credits part of his success, which built his cement company into the largest manufacturing group in West Africa, to his investment in an independent power grid for his operations. In a recent interview, he called lack of reliable electrical power the biggest threat to businesses in Africa.

The coalition currently includes 28 of the world’s biggest investors and has pledged to invest early in transformative ideas. According to Gates, these could include investments in paint that transforms any surface into a solar cell, fusion power, or “flow batteries” that allow solar panels to store power after dark.

The coalition will help companies vault the “valley of death”: the virtual canyon between success in the lab and success against existing carbon-emitting technologies.

“Private companies will ultimately develop these energy breakthroughs,” Gates said. “But their work will rely on the kind of basic research that only governments can fund.”

Mission: Impossible?

Twenty governments, including China, India, the United States, Indonesia and Brazil, pledged to double clean energy research and development over the next five years. The program, Mission Innovation, will increase basic research to $20 billion per year, to find the most promising paths to a post-carbon future.

The private sector’s Breakthrough Energy Coalition will focus on developing technologies from Mission Innovation countries, which currently make up 80 percent of global clean energy research.

Obama describes this model in action: Government-backed research plus private investment has already tripled wind power production and multiplied solar power generation more than 20 times since 2009. In some parts of the United States, this energy is cheaper than conventional, carbon-based electricity.

“We know that if we put our best minds behind it and we have the dollars behind it, we’ll discover what works. We always have in the past, and we will this time as well,” Obama said.

Learn more about the COP21 climate agreement at @US_Center, and check out the potential future of clean energy when the Breakthrough Energy Coalition begins investing.