Global Apollo Programme

Launched in June 2015, the project - named for the Apollo Program, which brought together thousands of scientists and engineers to put mankind on the moon - calls for developed nations to commit to spending 0.02% of their GDP, for 10 years, to fund co-ordinated research to solve the challenge. This equates to $150 billion over a decade, roughly the same cost committed to the Apollo Program in 2015 money.{{cite web|title=A Budgetary Analysis of NASA's New Vision for Space Exploration|url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/documents/o56716382.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061010034636/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/documents/o56716382.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 October 2006|website=Congressional Budget Office|publisher=Congress of the United States|accessdate=2 June 2015}}{{cite news|last1=Clark|first1=Pilita|title=$150bn needed to save world from climate change, warn scientists|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ecef7a04-0621-11e5-b676-00144feabdc0.html|accessdate=2 June 2015|work=Financial Times|publisher=Pearson PLC|date=2 June 2015|archive-date=3 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150603004549/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ecef7a04-0621-11e5-b676-00144feabdc0.html|url-status=live}} Some developed nations, including the UK, already meet the GDP percentage target spend, but many do not and there is little international coordination to maximise the results.

It has been modelled on the more recent International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, an international research collaborative that is credited with greatly and swiftly improving the quality and economics of semiconductor manufacture.{{cite web|title=Summary - the organisation of the Programme|url=http://www.globalapolloprogramme.org/|website=Global Apollo Programme|accessdate=3 June 2015|archive-date=1 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150801165548/http://globalapolloprogramme.org/|url-status=usurped}}

• Renewable energy - in particular that derived from solar and wind sources{{cite magazine|last1=Rundle|first1=Michael|title=How The 'Apollo Programme' For Energy Might Just Save The Planet|url=https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-06/02/global-apollo-programme|accessdate=6 June 2015|magazine=WIRED|date=2 June 2015|archive-date=6 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150606230900/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-06/02/global-apollo-programme|url-status=live}}
• Energy storage
• Smart grids
• hydrogen vehicles{{cite book |last1=Stern |first1=Nicholas |date=2015 |title=Why Are We Waiting? The Logic, Urgency, and Promise of Tackling Climate Change|edition=1st |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=978-0-262-02918-6 |page=267}}

The initiative is spearheaded by the chemist Professor Sir David King, former Government Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government.{{cite news|last1=Harrabin|first1=Roger|title='Moon shot' call on clean energy|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32967386|accessdate=2 June 2015|work=BBC News|agency=British Broadcasting Corporation|date=2 June 2015|archive-date=2 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150602215747/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32967386|url-status=live}} Amongst the Apollo group are economists Professor Lord Stern (author of The Stern Review) and Lord O'Donnell (former Cabinet Secretary), businessmen Lord Turner and Lord Browne (former Chief Executive of BP), cosmologist and astrophysicist Professor Lord Rees (former President of the Royal Society) and labour economist Lord Layard.{{cite news|last1=Coghlan|first1=Andy|title=New Apollo programme wants moonshot budget to boost renewables|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27635-new-apollo-programme-wants-moonshot-budget-to-boost-renewables.html|accessdate=2 June 2015|work=NewScientist|date=2 June 2015|archive-date=2 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150602182144/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27635-new-apollo-programme-wants-moonshot-budget-to-boost-renewables.html|url-status=live}}

The following were signatories on an open letter published to The Guardian newspaper, alongside the launch report authors, in September 2015.{{cite news|last1=Letters|title=Help the Global Apollo Programme make clean energy cheaper than coal|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/15/help-the-global-apollo-programme-make-clean-energy-cheaper-than-coal|accessdate=16 September 2015|work=The Guardian|issue=15 September 2015}}

• Sir David Attenborough ([https://embed.theguardian.com/embed/video/environment/video/2015/sep/16/david-attenborough-supports-clean-energy-plan-inspired-by-apollo-mission-video video endorsement])
• Professor Brian Cox, University of Manchester
• Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever
• Ed Davey, Former UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
• Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Chair of the Grantham Institute
• Mark Kenber, CEO of The Climate Group
• Ben Goldsmith Founder, Menhaden Capital
• Zac Goldsmith, British MP and London mayoral candidate
• Professor Martin Siegert, co-director of the Grantham Institute
• Professor Joanna Haigh, co-director, Grantham Institute; vice-president of Royal Meteorological Society
• Peter Bakker, President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
• Professor John Shepherd, University of Southampton
• Dr Arunabha Ghosh, Founder-CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University has separately publicly endorsed the programme.{{cite web|last1=Sachs|first1=Jeffrey|title=Our generation's moonshot: A clean-energy world by 2050|url=http://www.marketwatch.com/story/our-generations-moonshot-a-clean-energy-world-by-2050-2015-10-06|website=MarketWatch|publisher=Dow Jones & Company|accessdate=4 November 2015|archive-date=2015-11-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151110010658/http://www.marketwatch.com/story/our-generations-moonshot-a-clean-energy-world-by-2050-2015-10-06|url-status=live}}

Professor Sir David King has publicly stated that Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is "keen" on the programme.

{{Quote frame|At last - an authoritative, practical and comprehensible plan that could avert the catastrophe that is threatening our planet.|Sir David Attenborough|official launch at the Royal Society on 2 June 2015{{cite journal|title=Parliamentary Business, House of Lords|journal=Hansard|date=2 June 2015|volume=Column 313|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldhansrd/text/150602-0001.htm#st_79|accessdate=17 June 2015|archive-date=17 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617212940/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldhansrd/text/150602-0001.htm#st_79|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=Push to make renewables cheaper|url=https://uk.news.yahoo.com/push-renewables-cheaper-230158943.html|accessdate=6 June 2015|work=Yahoo! News|agency=Press Association|date=2 June 2015|archive-date=6 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150606230818/https://uk.news.yahoo.com/push-renewables-cheaper-230158943.html|url-status=live}}}}

{{Quote frame|[Research and development in renewables] should be like the Manhattan Project and the Apollo Project in the sense that the government should put in a serious amount of R&D.|Bill Gates, spearhead of Mission Innovation, 25 June 2015{{cite news|last1=Adams|first1=Christopher|last2=Thornhill|first2=John|title=Gates to double investment in renewable energy projects|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4f66ff5c-1a47-11e5-a130-2e7db721f996.html|accessdate=26 June 2015|work=Financial Times|publisher=Pearson PLC|date=25 June 2015|archive-date=26 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626201242/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4f66ff5c-1a47-11e5-a130-2e7db721f996.html|url-status=live}}}}

{{Quote frame| We will work together and with other interested countries to raise the overall coordination and transparency of clean energy research, development and demonstration... We ask our Energy Ministers to take forward these initiatives...|Leaders of the G7, 41st G7 summit, Schloss Elmau, June 2015{{cite web|title=Leadersʼ Declaration, G7 Summit, 7–8 June 2015.|url=https://www.g7germany.de/Content/EN/_Anlagen/G7/2015-06-08-g7-abschluss-eng_en___blob=publicationFile&v=3.pdf?__blob=publicationFile|website=G7 Germany 2015 Schloss Elmau|publisher=Group of Seven (G7)|accessdate=30 December 2019}}}}

{{Quote frame| Foremost, governments need to fund research and development for low-carbon energy technologies at Apollo-program levels of commitment... The required funding of this ultimate public good is too great a risk with too little a reward for private companies. But it is easily fundable by governments.|Professor Steven Pinker, Harvard University{{cite news|last1=Pinker|first1=Steven|last2=Goldstein|first2=Joshua S.|title=Inconvenient truths for the environmental movement|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/11/23/inconvenient-truths-for-environmental-movement/esDloe97894keW16Ywa9MP/story.html|accessdate=25 November 2015|work=The Boston Globe|issue=23 November 2015|archive-date=24 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124231131/http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/11/23/inconvenient-truths-for-environmental-movement/esDloe97894keW16Ywa9MP/story.html|url-status=live}}}}

• The programme was discussed at the Energy Ministers run-up meeting to the 41st G7 summit.
• It featured in the Leader's Declaration of the 41st G7 summit itself.

• Mission Innovation
• Breakthrough Energy
• Keeling Curve

Category:Research projects

Category:Government research