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The Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) founder is joined by some of the world's richest people in supporting a 20-year fund called Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Investors include Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, and Alibaba (BABA, Tech30) Executive Chairman Jack Ma. Gates will serve as the chairman of the fund, which is the venture arm of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a group founded last year to accelerate research and investment in clean energy.

Last year saw more clean energy milestones than we could fit on one page, but here are 13 of the key breakthroughs that happened this year.

Don't leave 2014 without realizing there have been notable - often underreported - big capital market breakthroughs on climate change, water protection and other sustainability fronts.

The political outcomes of COP21, the UN climate conference, may still be unknown, but at least we can expect substantial investment in clean energy following two initiatives announced earlier this week: Mission Innovation, a commitment from 20 participating countries to double their governmental and/or state-directed clean energy research and development investment over five years; and the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a global group of private investors who will support the commercialization of clean energy ideas

Cutting costs is paramount for the offshore wind industry - as well as for the climate. The cheaper it becomes, the more green offshore wind capacity will see the light of day. A record-low price on the Dutch wind farm Borssele 1+2 marks a breakthrough for offshore wind costs....

Turn off your air conditioner and stay cool in your shirt instead. That's the idea behind a new plastic-wrap-like material that Stanford University scientists say could be made into "cool" clothing, the use of which could slash emissions and energy consumption in buildings. If woven into fabric, the wearable cloth could keep humans cool on the hottest of days, eliminating the need to adjust the thermostat or crank up a fan. That could make a dent on a major source of U.S. greenhouse gases, the researchers say.

Cleantech company Nova Innovation has reportedly built the world's first fully operational, commercial, grid-connected array of underwater turbines that generate power from oceanic tides. The array is located northeast of Scotland in the Shetland Islands.

But the fact is that the blockchain is building some serious credibility within the world's biggest banks and financial services firms - they helped fuel more than $1 billion in investments between 2014 and 2016. That visibility has given both established and emerging companies the confidence to experiment. In mid-October, for example, Walmart announced a collaboration with IBM and Tsinghua University in Beijing focused on using the blockchain as a mechanism for authenticating food sources and keeping tabs on all sorts of related data - including the originating farm, batch numbers, processing plant information, expiration dates and storage temperatures.

Leaders of eight major seafood companies and fish feed organizations signed a pledge for ocean sustainability after a kickoff meeting of the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship last month in the Maldives. Signatories agreed to improve transparency in their own operations, build on and share best practices, engage in science-based efforts to improve fisheries management and productivity, work toward pollution reduction goals, and support the development of new sustainability technology and initiatives.

With carbon dioxide emissions continuing to rise, an increasing number of experts believe major technological breakthroughs - such as CO2 air capture - will be necessary to slow global warming. But without the societal will to decarbonize, even the best technologies won't be enough.

India-based Carbon Clean Solutions has developed a technique to turn harmful carbon dioxide emissions into sodium carbonate. Several other companies want to acquire the technology and use the soda ash that's produced to manufacture baking soda, glass, detergents and sweeteners.

New report suggests smart city technologies capable of slashing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution are on the cusp of a major breakthrough

While 2014 ushered in big breakthroughs in fields from solar energy to smart cities, 2015 will present a crossroads for larger-scale sustainability progress.

Food company Dannon has pledged to work with its dairy farmer partners and their suppliers to improve sustainable agriculture practices, increase the use of natural and non-GMO ingredients across its 3 flagship products, and more.

Researchers in Iceland found a new way of tackling climate change by pumping carbon dioxide underground and turning it into stone.

New innovations from the tech giants will allow businesses to make their cloud computing more environmentally sound.