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UK strikes green investment deal with Bill Gates

The UK government has struck a deal with Bill Gates.

It says the billionaire Microsoft founder will invest to help bring down the cost of green technologies.

Gates says he's looking at what projects to back, and won't delay taking action:

“We will be funding these projects jointly next year. The UK has already got a number of applications coming in, we’ve got lots of small companies that are inventing better technology for doing these things so over the next five-year period, we expect at least one of these technologies will be ready to scale and over the next decade, that all of them will be.”

The news came at a Global Investment Summit in London on Tuesday (October 19).

It's a precursor to the COP26 talks on climate change due to begin at the end of this month.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has a list of technologies he wants Gates to back.

That includes better batteries, green hydrogen, and systems for capturing carbon emissions.

Johnson says private sector backing will be key to making progress worldwide:

"The developing world has got to be given the help it needs to decarbonise. Why should you – we, in the UK, we’ve been pumping this stuff into the air for 200 years, those countries haven’t. They need help to reduce their CO2 output, but the only way that help can be given in the volume required is with massive private sector investments.”

The Breakthrough Energy Catalyst run by Gates brings together private investors who want to tackle climate change.

Now the new UK partnership will see a total of about $552 million going to green projects.

Johnson's government has pledged half that sum, with Gates making up the rest.