Malcolm Turnbull has pushed clean energy to the forefront of his innovation drive by signing Australia up to a Barack Obama and Bill Gates-led plan that will pour billions of dollars into research to combat climate change. 
It came as the Prime Minister prepared to tell 150 world leaders at the Paris climate conference on Monday that Australia wanted a strong global commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and would be prepared to pledge deeper cuts in coming years if a deal was agreed.
To be announced on the first day of the conference, the "Mission Innovation" initiative will require 20 countries - including the US, China and India - to each double clean research and development funding over the next five years.
For Australia, that is expected to mean an additional $100 million spending. Across the 20 countries, it would increase public investment from $10 billion to $20 billion.
The details of Australia's spending is expected to be laid out in an innovation statement next week.
The pledge by governments will sit alongside a similar program backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates that would see 28 of the world's wealthiest investors - including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Virgin's Richard Branson and Jack Ma, of China's Alibaba Group - pool money to develop technologies that show promise in a bid to bring affordable clean energy to billions of people.
The group, which calls themselves the "Breakthrough Energy Coalition", has a net worth of $350 billion.
In a statement, Mr Gates said: "Given the scale of the challenge, we need to be exploring many different paths, and that means we also need to invent new approaches."
The countries signing up to Mission Innovation contribute 80 per cent of the world's public clean energy research and development spending. Each country had also committed to reporting regularly on their progress towards the meeting Mission Innovation's goals.
Other countries involved are Brazil, Britain, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said the initiative had its roots in Mr Obama's   January visit to India, where he met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a champion of solar energy development.
Back in Australia, there were signs of discomfort among some government MPs over the possibility of an increased commitment beyond the pledged target of a 26-28 per cent emission cut on 2005 levels by 2030.
In Parliament, Mr Turnbull was reminded as to the limits of his authority on the world stage by his own deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop.
"The Prime Minister reiterated in Paris ... that the targets of 26 to 28 per cent will not be negotiated at the Paris climate change conference," she told the House of Representatives.
"That is our target ... he was not changing government policy. Government policy remains the same. Our target is 26 to 28 per cent."
Australia has decided not to sign up to a statement of support for reform of fossil fuel subsidies, which some rural Coalition MPs feared would spell the end of the diesel rebate for farmers.
A spokeswoman for Mr Turnbull confirmed to Fairfax Media that he would not sign up to the statement, which is due to be launched on the first full day of the Paris summit.
with Agencies
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