The European Commission, the European Investment Bank and Breakthrough Energy Ventures launched on Wednesday 29 May in Vancouver (Canada), on the occasion of the fourth ministerial meeting of the “Innovation Mission”, a €100 million investment fund to help innovative European companies develop and market radically new clean energy technologies.
The fund will invest in five major energy-related sectors where efforts are essential to combat climate change: electricity, transport, agriculture, manufacturing and buildings. Investments are expected to start in the second half of 2019, when EU Member States and countries associated with Horizon 2020 will be eligible to apply for funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
In October 2018, Commission Vice-President for the Energy Union, Maroš Šefčovič, Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas and Bill Gates, representing Breakthrough Energy Ventures, announced the creation of the fund, half financed by the European Investment Bank and guaranteed by the European Research and Innovation Programme Horizon 2020, and half by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (see EUROPE 12119/16).
The ‘Innovation Mission’ is a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Commission (on behalf of the European Union) working towards clean energy with the aim of making it widely affordable. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)