LONDON (AFP)—Virgin chief Sir Richard Branson has launched what he called the world’s biggest prize to inspire innovators to develop a way to remove greenhouse gases from the earth’s atmosphere.
Branson announced the 25-million-dollar Virgin Earth Challenge prize at a joint press conference here with Al Gore, the former US vice president turned global environment campaigner.
The prize will go to the individual or group able to show a commercially viable design resulting in the net removal of man-made atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least 10 years, without harmful side-effects.
Branson said: “Could it be possible to find someone on Earth who could devise a way of removing the lethal amount of CO2 from the Earth’s atmosphere?
“How could we get every young, creative, innovative thinker, every inventor and every scientist to put their minds to it?
“The challenge we are laying down to the world’s brightest brains is: to devise a way of removing greenhouse gases at least the equivalent of one billion tonnes of carbon per year, and hopefully much more.
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