BILL GATES TO INVEST $2B TO AVERT CLIMATE CHANGE

Microsoft founder Bill Gates wants to invest a total of two billion dollars in projects and start-ups in the next five years to avert climate change, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

Innovations were needed to avert a climate disaster, Gates said in remarks published Monday in the German business daily Handelsblatt. This was not impossible, but would be very difficult, he added.

Gates also called for a five-fold increase in government investment in clean energy research and other climate innovations worldwide within the next decade.

The entrepreneur and philanthropist estimates that research worth at least $110 billion will be needed annually.

In his new book, "How to avoid a climate disaster," Gates calls for CO2 emissions to be completely eliminated by 2050 in a bid to avoid enormous environmental and economic damage.

Gates says man must change the physical economy at a pace never seen before. In addition, he believes that CO2 taxes, certificate trading and alternative energies such as solar and wind power are indispensable.

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