Australia has joined 19 other countries in a global clean energy initiative called Mission Innovation at the Paris climate summit.
In a public-private initiative that will see clean energy research double over the next five years, 20 governments will pour billions of dollars into developing clean energy technology to combat climate change.
They will be joined by 28 private investors, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who have pledged their own money to help build clean energy businesses.
US President Barack Obama was in attendance and said he was positive the initiative would have a strong impact.
“Mission Innovation will help deliver affordable, clean energy and new jobs and opportunities to people around the world for decades to come,” he said.
“This is how we’re going to solve the challenge together.”
While Australia’s investment in clean technology research and development will double to $200 million a year, the government is still planning to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, two of the major players in the sector.
While some existing Australian clean tech companies say the innovation fund will help turn clean, green ideas from concept to reality, Climate Institute chief executive John Connor was skeptical of the proposed fund.
“We have seen innovation funds in the past and they can be positive but if they are not linked to something that actually drives deployment on the ground and in Australia's case, deals with our coal fired power stations, then they are not enough,” he said.
Clean technology entrepreneur David Walsh agreed with Mr Connor, saying: “it is difficult for any private equity or venture capitalist to pay for the business development and minimal viable product phase".
"So if government can fill that gap then I think we will see an awful lot of change and success in the technology sector," he said.
Mr Gates is also one of 28 leading investors who have launched the Breakthrough Energy Coalition to allow companies to get innovation out of the lab and into the marketplace.
“Burning coal in most places is still cheaper than renewables and we need breakthroughs so that cost goes down,” Mr Gates said.
Another major carbon solution on the table is the international solar alliance and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has signalled he is keen to move towards solar energy.
“We want to bring solar energy into our lives and homes by making it cheaper, more reliable and easier to connect to the grid,” he said.
