Davos updates | More businesses join green tech partnership

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The World Economic Forum and leaders of some of the world’s largest businesses are announcing the expansion of a partnership aimed at propelling green technologies.

The First Movers Coalition includes businesses that make major purchases around green technologies and down their supply chains. The idea is to send market signals that lead to more investing and scaling up of technologies like green steel, green hydrogen and carbon capture.

On Wednesday, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry was joined by Bill Gates, Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff, Google Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat and several others to announce in Davos that the number of companies had gone from more than 30 to 55.

Sweden, India, Japan, Denmark, the United Kingdom and other countries also joined the partnership, first launched by the U.S. and World Economic Forum.

Gates says “so many green products carry a price premium” compared with established fossil fuel technologies and that “the way you get rid of that is scale up the production.”

The world’s top climate scientists warn that greenhouse gas emissions must be sharply reduced this decade to keep temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 F) since pre-industrial times.

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The CEO of Ukraine’s largest private energy company says it won’t buy any energy from Russia as long as he’s in charge and insists the European Union can start making up for its “dramatic mistake” of growing dependent on Russian oil and natural gas by buying energy from Ukraine.

Maxim Timchenko of DTEK Group told The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum’s gathering in Davos that consumption of its services in Ukraine has dropped 35% since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. He says some of that excess electricity could be shipped to Europe.

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