Will Bill Gates and his billionaire friends save the planet? | Martin Lukacs, Rajiv Sicora

We don't need the miracles that Gates' new clean-tech fund promises - we need to take back democracy from the super rich

Not to worry, the world's richest philanthropists are on the case. As the United Nations climate talks kicked off in Paris amid worries that governments aren't committing to serious emissions reductions, Bill Gates stole the spotlight with a bold promise to usher in a clean-tech future.

Gates is the new public face of Mission Innovation, an initiative of twenty governments, including the US and India, pledging to double their spending on future clean tech. And because government research is "not enough," Gates also launched the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a parallel plan with billionaires like Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg to spark big technological solutions, while making a buck on the side.