Bill Gates-backed Catalyst fund launches request for proposals

Bill Gates-backed green finance fund Breakthrough Energy launched a request for proposals (RfP) earlier this week to support emerging large-scale environmentally sustainable technology projects in the EU, Norway and Iceland.

The Commission heralded the RfP as the "first milestone" of the EU-Catalyst partnership. Launched last November at COP26 in Glasgow by Gates, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Investment Bank President Werner Hoyer, the project is now searching for high-potential green projects across the continent that cover sustainable aviation fuel, green hydrogen, long-duration energy storage and direct air capture.

The goal of the partnership is to raise $1 billion between 2022 and 2026 to address the early deployment funding gap for these technologies and accelerate their deployment and commercialisation. The Commission says that the EU-Catalyst will help deliver the ambitions of the European Green Deal, and aid in the bloc's ambition to become climate-neutral by 2050.

Read more: What is the human cost of the green & digital transitions?

"With the EU-Catalyst Partnership, we want to make a daring leap towards achieving our climate goals," said R&D Commissioner Mariya Gabriel.

"We need technological revolution on a global scale, large investments, more financial risk-taking and more game-changing innovations, as well as policies that support public-private partnerships across the globe."

The European Union's half of the fund has come from its Horizon Europe programme and the Innovation Fund. The Commission has claimed that for each euro of public funds spent, three will be leveraged in private investment. 

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