U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates leave a meeting to launch the ‘Mission Innovation: Accelerating the Clean Energy Revolution’ at the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) in Le Bourget, near Paris, France, November 30, 2015. Bill Gates grows most animated when the talk turns to the “cool” new energy technologies that have yet to leave the lab. Gates was a rare civilian sharing the limelight alongside presidents and prime ministers at the opening session of Paris climate talks on Monday. Offstage, in a barren conference room, he excitedly described the possibility of generating energy through the long-speculated process of artificial photosynthesis, using the energy of sunshine to produce liquid hydrocarbons that could challenge the supremacy of fossil fuels. “If it works it would be magical,” says Gates, hugging his elbows to his side and rocking lightly in his seat. “Because with liquids you don’t […]