Rishi Sunak met with Bill Gates this week to discuss the UK’s low carbon technology efforts at the launch of a new UK cleantech initiative.

The new initiative, launched at London’s Imperial College, aims to “supercharge” the country’s cleantech innovation.

The new initiative brings together a coalition of investors and venture-builders with combined funds of over £4 billion and aims to “accelerate the translation of the UK’s scientific research into world-leading cleantech scale-ups”.

“With the launch of Cleantech for UK, a new generation of talented British businesses can be confident that they have the backing they need to unlock green solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face,” said Rishi Sunak.

Bill Gates, who founded sustainable energy company Breakthrough Energy in 2015, said that the UK “has all the ingredients” to become a major player in the move towards a net-zero emissions future –including “word-class” research facilities and forward-looking investors.

The launch of the scheme marks the UK’s latest effort in its aim to reach net zero in the coming years.

The government recently awarded £30 million in funding to a share of companies working on net zero projects.

This week the government also awarded businesses £12.4 million to clean up industrial processes and improve energy efficiency.

The funding will be split between 22 businesses and is part of the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF), which has awarded grants to British projects across the country to increase the energy efficiency of their industrial processes.

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