The Dutch government is planning to join the Mission Innovation coalition. The global initiative aims to accelerate public and private innovation in order to make clean energy affordable for consumers, as well as creating “green” jobs and commercial opportunities. Mission Innovation was announced by former Microsoft leader Bill Gates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris last year. At the launch, 20 countries – Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, EU, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, UAE, UK and US – committed to doubling their respective clean energy R&D by 2020.
Its mission statement is as follows: In support of economic growth, energy access and security, and an urgent and lasting global response to climate change, our mission is to accelerate the pace of clean energy innovation to achieve performance breakthroughs and cost reductions to provide widely affordable and reliable clean energy solutions that will revolutionize energy systems throughout the world over the next two decades and beyond.
In a letter to parliament detailing the Dutch government’s plan, Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp referred to the support and participation of various Dutch companies, including AkzoNobel, Philips and DSM.
“We’re more than happy to give our support to initiatives such as Mission Innovation, which aims to make life more liveable by providing people with real economic and environmental benefits,” said André Veneman, AkzoNobel’s Director of Sustainability. “We can’t afford to wait – clean energy R&D is vital to our future.”
Added Veneman: “There is also a strong fit with our own Planet Possible approach to sustainability, which is focused on resource efficiency and finding ways to do more with less. Almost 40 percent of our energy use already comes from renewable energy and we’re working hard to increase that figure.”
Mission Innovation links to the private sector via the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, also launched by Gates at COP21, which has committed to funding clean energy companies emerging from the initiatives of Mission Innovation.
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