BCG Joins Breakthrough Energy Catalyst to Invest in Latest Climate Technology

LONDON—Boston Consulting Group (BCG), one of the world’s leading management consulting firms, joined six other leading businesses to become a founding partner of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a groundbreaking program to accelerate the development of the climate-smart technologies necessary to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Breakthrough Energy Catalyst is a new program (within the larger Breakthrough Energy network founded by Bill Gates), for public- private-sector partnerships to help build the foundation of the net-zero economy. Catalyst brings together businesses, governments, philanthropies, and individuals to invest in critical climate technologies that will make it possible to reach net-zero emissions. The program will initially focus on four key areas: direct air capture, green hydrogen, long duration energy storage, and sustainable aviation fuel.

“BCG is delighted to partner with Catalyst to bring the power of BCG’s consulting, climate, and industry expertise to accelerate the green industrial revolution,” said Christoph Schweizer, CEO, BCG (as of 1 October, 2021). “This new partnership with some of the world’s leading corporations will be critical to unlocking the potential to find, fund, and scale innovative technology solutions. These solutions are essential to closing the gap to vital climate targets.”

“Avoiding a climate disaster will require a new industrial revolution,” said Bill Gates, Founder, Breakthrough Energy. “Half the technology needed to get to zero emissions either doesn’t exist yet or is too expensive for much of the world to afford. Catalyst is designed to change that and provide a more effective way to invest in our clean technology future. By working with a growing community of partners, Catalyst will take a global view of the energy innovation landscape—the key technologies, leading-edge companies, financing partners, and critical policies—and fund the projects that will have the greatest positive impact for our planet.”

“BCG has a critical role to play within Catalyst and beyond to help organizations develop and deliver strategies that put climate at the heart of business models,” added Schweizer. “We’re committed to using our expertise and relationships to drive critical sustainable transformations for our clients and our planet.”

The partnership follows BCG’s 20-year relationship with various Gates entities, most notably the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It also supports BCG’s broader commitment to achieve net-zero climate impact by 2030 and, from there, to become climate positive, removing more carbon from the atmosphere than the firm emits each year.

Through direct investments, Catalyst and its partners will help reduce the costs of the clean technologies needed to compete with and replace the greenhouse-gas-emitting counterparts we have today, lowering what are referred to as Green Premiums and ultimately accelerating their widespread adoption.

Since Catalyst was introduced earlier this year, it has already announced large-scale partnerships with the European Union and United States Department of Energy. Today’s announcement represents the first group of private sector organizations to formally join the Catalyst community of partners. These partners will come together with Breakthrough Energy to make significant investments in early commercial demonstration projects, offer perspectives on continued private sector engagement, provide insights on investment and offtake strategies, and help to encourage more companies to join Catalyst. Additional anchor partners may be announced leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference in November.

Catalyst and its partners are immediately beginning work to lower emissions and today launched a Request for Information site to gather input connected to its four initial technology focus areas, which will be open until 20 October, 2021. Catalyst expects to announce its first formal Request for Proposals by the end of this year.

For more information, please contact Brian Bannister at bannister.brian@bcg.com or +44 7733 886145.

About Breakthrough Energy

Founded by Bill Gates, Breakthrough Energy is dedicated to helping humanity avoid a climate disaster. Through investment vehicles, philanthropic programs, policy advocacy, and other activities, Breakthrough Energy is committed to scaling the technologies the world needs to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Visit www.breakthroughenergy.org for more information and connect with Breakthrough Energy on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

About Breakthrough Energy Catalyst

Breakthrough Energy Catalyst is a first-of-its-kind model to finance, produce, and buy the new solutions that will underpin a zero-carbon economy. Catalyst seeks to bring together the public and private sectors to fund commercial-stage demonstration projects for critical decarbonization technologies. Catalyst will address the early deployment funding gap for these technologies and provide a structure to accelerate their commercialization. Catalyst will start by funding projects across four technologies: direct air capture, green hydrogen, long duration energy storage, and sustainable aviation fuel. In the future, Catalyst intends to expand the same framework to other necessary innovations, like low-carbon steel and cement.