Mission Innovation, a group of nations pledging to double their clean energy research and development funding, kicked off its first ministerial Thursday, welcoming the addition of a new member. The European Commission officially joined the initiative that was formed at the Paris climate negotiations in December, bringing the total number of affiliated parties to 21. “The global community is mobilizing to fight climate change, and I think Mission Innovation will play a very crucial role in making sure that we can actually manage the growth, decarbonization, and innovation at the same time,” European Commission Energy Union Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič said during a panel discussion Thursday at the ministerial.
The addition of the European Commission to Mission Innovation was well received, as was an announcement of increased ambition by Mexico. “In the next five years, Mexico will quadruple its investment in the research and development of clean energy technologies by investing up to $310 million according to its commitment to Mission Innovation of the Paris meeting of COP21,” Mexican Secretary of Energy Pedro Joaquin Coldwell announced. “We are working very hard in Mission Innovation. It’s inspired us.”
“That’s a challenge to everyone else now, of course,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz responded with a chuckle during the discussion.
Mission Innovation is a public-private partnership consisting of the governments of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and now the European Commission, working in coordination with a private sector group led by Bill Gates.
The private sector arm of the initiative has been titled the “Breakthrough Energy Coalition.” Notable participants include Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, Tom Steyer of NextGen Climate, Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard, and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan of Facebook and the Primary School, respectively. The Breakthrough Energy Coalition has committed to increasing investment in clean energy startups and breakthrough technologies.
While Missions Innovation was announced in December, a few basic detailed remained unclear until Thursday’s ministerial, at which time energy Ministers from participating nations released baseline funding data, making it clear how much additional funding the initiative would bring in.
According to the baseline data, the 21 parties currently invest a total of approximately $15 billion per year in clean energy research and development. “The 21 partners have each pledged to seek a doubling in their governmental and/or state-directed clean energy research and development investment over five years, reaching around a combined $30 billion per year by 2021,” a Mission Innovation release states.
While climate action may not be a truly bipartisan issue in the U.S. Congress, energy innovation is, House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said during a keynote presentation during the ministerial. “The issue of expanding clean energy R&D has bipartisan support in Congress, and we will work to make good on the U.S.’s commitment to double our R&D investment over five years. At every level we are committed to making progress,” she said.
However, things do not look great for the U.S. contribution to Mission Innovation in the fiscal 2017 budget process. The administration’s request included funding allocations, many in the form of new mandatory spending, to make good on the Mission Innovation pledges, which were largely denied, though regretfully, in the Senate energy spending bill, the only version of the bill to advance past the chamber floor.
Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), during an April markup of the bill, said the funding would be hard to approve. “While I wish we could have funded the president’s proposed $800 million Mission Innovation climate change initiative, we were simply unable to make it work with the allocation we received,” she said.
