The year 2016 was historic in many ways. One of its almost significant moments happened when the Paris Agreement on Climate change came into force.

Simply tech giant and philanthropist Bill Gates argues that we need much more than a cut in global emissions to solve our climate problem – "we need an free energy phenomenon," he says.

And then he, along with some of the earth's richest people, have launched a fund to invest in solutions driven by technology. Information technology will join governments and research institutions and billionaire investors who will try to limit climate change.

These are five technological innovations that could assist them achieve their goal.

Power generation

Nosotros already know that nuclear power is a fashion of producing electricity complimentary of carbon emissions, just we have yet to harness it in a mode that is truly rubber and cost-effective. We may be closer to an answer, notwithstanding.

Canadian company General Fusion aims to be the first in the world to create a commercially feasible nuclear-fusion-free energy power plant.

"Fusion produces goose egg greenhouse gas emissions, emitting but helium as exhaust. Information technology also requires less country than other renewable technologies," says the company. "Fusion energy is inherently safe, with cypher possibility of a meltdown scenario and no long-lived waste, and there is enough fusion fuel to power the planet for hundreds of millions of years."

Nuclear fusion

Image: General Fusion

Transport

We take already found alternative ways of powering vehicles, such equally with electricity, just in lodge to exercise it on a wide scale, we demand much more efficient batteries and much more efficient battery-charging technology.

Researchers at the University of Surrey say they have fabricated a scientific breakthrough in this regard. They say they have discovered new materials offering an culling to bombardment ability and proven to be between 1,000-10,000 times more powerful than the existing battery alternative, a supercapacitor.

"The new technology is believed to have the potential for electric cars to travel to like distances as petrol cars without the need to terminate for lengthy recharging breaks of between 6 and eight hours, and instead recharge fully in the time information technology takes to fill a regular auto with petrol," says the university.

Food

About a quarter of all global emissions come from feeding the earth's vii billion people, and office of that comes from the consumption of meat. "In that location is no way to produce enough meat for 9 billion people," said Bill Gates in a 2013 blog post.

I of the alternatives is to kickoff producing lab-grown meat, and to produce meat substitutes that look, gustation and feel like the real affair. It might seem like the stuff of science fiction, only companies and investors akin are taking it very seriously. The company Beyond Meat, already supported by Nib Gates, has created the world's beginning meat burger that is entirely establish based. It'southward made mostly from vegetable protein found in peas.

Image: Beyond meat

Manufacturing

Making the things we use every 24-hour interval puts an enormous strain on the climate – most 30% of emissions come from industry.

But what if nosotros could take those CO2 emissions out of the air? Carbon Engineering is a Canadian kickoff-up which is working on exactly that – taking carbon dioxide direct from the atmosphere and then using it to produce fuel.

According to the visitor, "direct air capture can remove far more CO2 per acre of land footprint than trees and plants". The company is already running a demonstration plant in Squamish, British Columbia, that is removing one ton of CO2 from the air every twenty-four hours.

Image: Carbon Engineering

Buildings

The greenhouse gas emissions of buildings is also significant. We need lighting, power, heating and cooling whether at home or in the role, at schoolhouse or in a hospital. The combined emissions from these sources contributes well-nigh 20% of global emissions.

Role of the respond is to build smarter cities.

That's what a company chosen Sidewalk Labs (which is function of Alphabet Inc, the parent of Google) is doing, harnessing digital technologies to solve today's pressing urban problems. Ane of their electric current projects involves looking at how traffic flows through a city and how hotspots of congestion might be solved. This could dramatically reduce air pollution in our cities.

Image: Sidewalk Labs

Members of the Breakthrough Free energy Coalition (BEC), which numbers among its members Jeff Bezos from Amazon, Jack Ma from the Ali Baba group and Richard Branson, have committed to investing more than than $1 billion in new technologies over the next 20 years.