Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel meets Bill Gates in the Grand Duchy; Credit: Xavier Bettel / Facebook

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates met with Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and representatives from the European Investment Bank (EIB) during a visit to the Grand Duchy on Wednesday 26 October 2022.

Bill Gates and representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Breakthrough Energy visited the Luxembourg headquarters of the EIB, the world’s largest international public bank, to further strengthen cooperation between the EIB and these two organisations in their respective areas of work. On the agenda was a discussion of ways to strengthen cooperation on sustainable human development, innovation, health and clean energy.

"Closer cooperation between organisations like ours is essential to improving global health, enhancing food security, unlocking clean energy innovation and delivering sustainable human development", said EIB President Werner Hoyer.

During the visit, Breakthrough Energy and the EIB signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation to accelerate the clean energy transition, support cutting-edge research, develop and mobilise investment to commercialise innovation and implement the EU Catalyst partnership. The new agreement builds on €50 million EIB backing for the Breakthrough Energy Ventures-Europe to scale up the deployment of new technology to replace fossil intensive energy use and joint support by the EIB and European Commission for the Breakthrough Energy Catalyst programme made by Werner Hoyer and European Commission President von der Leyen at COP 26 in Glasgow last year.

The agreement will also enable closer cooperation between the Breakthrough Energy Fellows Program and the EIB Institute. The Fellows programme is designed to ensure early-stage entrepreneurs working on ground-breaking scientific solutions have the research and development (R&D) funding, educational resources and network they need to realise the full potential of their technology.

Moreover, the visit included discussions on current cooperation between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the EIB to improve global health and development outcomes, including tackling malaria and polio.

EIB experts outlined recent support for financial inclusion, targeting gender equality and agricultural financing through EIB Global, the EIB’s recently launched dedicated development finance arm.

During this visit to Luxembourg, Bill Gates also met with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. The latter described this encounter on social media as a "constructive and inspiring meeting", adding: "We talked about our common priorities and the current geopolitical situation, climate and energy issues and the role of innovation in achieving a more sustainable future".