Prime Minister 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 energy research and development funding over the next five years.
For Australia, that is expected to mean spending an additional $100 million. 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 itself the "Breakthrough Energy Coalition", has a net worth of $350 billion. 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."
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."
But Coalition MPs remain nervous. A proposed international ban on government subsidies for fossil fuels has caused Nationals and some rural Liberals to express strong concerns.
Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen took to Twitter, describing as "madness" any agreement which would apply to the diesel rebate for farmers.
Supporters of the diesel fuel rebate say it is not a subsidy but a "business input" that should not be taxed. Other conservative Liberals are also concerned about the pressure being placed on Australia in Paris. West Australian Dennis Jensen counselled calm but repeated that the Coalition's policy was fixed. "It's got to stay the same, we don't fiddle it around and change it," he said.
Another Liberal, who did not wish to be named, said there was deep concern among the party's conservative MPs that Mr Turnbull may attempt to commit Australia to new measures which were on top of the policy agreed to by the Abbott cabinet.
But Greens Leader Richard di Natale said Mr Turnbull needed to match his words with actions. It was still government policy to abolish two organisations responsible for driving investment in clean energy innovation - the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, he said.
"That is really going to be what Paris is about for Malcolm Turnbull, whether he's just another politician who says one thing and does another."
With wires
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