Richard Branson announced the Virgin Earth Challenge on 9 February. Regular readers know we are big fans of technology prizes in general, which are much more efficient that government R&D for targeted goals. The press release says:
The Virgin Earth Challenge will award $25 million to the individual or group who are able to demonstrate a commercially viable design which will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without countervailing harmful effects. This removal must have long term effects and contribute materially to the stability of the Earth’s climate.
I did not find a specific quantitative goal on the Branson site. But BBC says:
They are looking for a method that will remove at least one billion tonnes of carbon per year from the atmosphere.
I’ve don’t know whether this new $25million prize is large enough to motivate the required innovation. No doubt Branson will lobby the US Congress and others to up the prize. Hello Paul Allen?
Note that the prize is small relative to Branson’s 10-year $3 billion pledge:
…at September’s Clinton Global Initiative jamboree in New York, [Branson] pledged to invest all of his group’s profits from transportation―mostly air travel―for ten years to come in developing renewable alternatives to carbon fuels. That pledge was said to be worth around $3 billion…
Does carbon sequestration count? The prize wording is not clear to me. I hope they are looking for a technology to remove existing carbon from the atmosphere — but one could read the announcement to include sequestration.
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