To get from 51 billion tons
of greenhouse-gas emissions to zero,
we need to change the way we make
just about everything in the next 30 years.
This is the greatest opportunity for innovation
in human history.
We’re going to build the trillion-dollar
global industries of tomorrow.
Some of the solutions we need,
like wind and solar power,
are already starting to compete
with the fossil-fuel incumbents they were designed to replace.
But for many of the newer technologies
we need to bring down the cost
and demonstrate that they work in real world situations.
So we have to invest in large-scale commercial plants,
which are often too risky for traditional investment.
We need to innovate, not just in the technologies,
but in how the public and private sectors come together
to build this scale.
We’ve seen this work before with solar energy.
But even in that case it took fifty years
to go from powering calculators to powering cities.
And we can’t afford to wait fifty years.
And that’s why Breakthrough Energy is launching
the Catalyst program to bring the next generation of climate solutions
to market in time and at a low enough cost
to avoid a climate disaster.
We’re bringing together philanthropists,
governments, and leading companies
to make bold investments in technologies with great promise
but with a long road to commercial success.
These investments won’t just help reduce emissions,
they’ll also create new, high-paying jobs for decades to come.
The early investors in these technologies
will be recognized for their contributions.
That’s why we’re creating
Catalyzed Emissions Reduction Framework
which measures the reductions in emissions
and the cost of these new technologies over time.
This framework will let our funding partners
be recognized for the impact of their contributions.
The first four technologies we’re focusing on are:
Green hydrogen where we split water molecules,
and we use the hydrogen for power.
Second is long-duration energy storage
so we can use intermittent sources like solar,
even when the sun isn’t shining.
Third is sustainable aviation fuel
where we take biological inputs,
including municipal waste,
and we convert it to replacement jet fuel.
Fourth and finally, direct air capture
where we literally take the carbon out of the air
and store it away where it’ll no longer cause any heating.
In science, a catalyst is a substance
that accelerates a chemical reaction.
Our Catalyst program is designed
to accelerate the journey of innovation
for the technologies we need to avoid a climate disaster.
I’m optimistic we can succeed if we act boldly, together.