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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk teased his latest philanthropic effort on Thursday: a competition to encourage more innovative carbon capture technologies.
“I’m donating $ 100 million for an award for best carbon capture technology,” Musk tweeted, adding that he would provide “details next week.”
Musk, who briefly passed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as the richest man in the world before a drop in Tesla’s share price pushed him back one spot, recently asked his Twitter followers advice on the best way to donate money.
“Critical comments are always greatly appreciated, as well as ways to donate money that really make a difference (much harder than it looks),” Musk tweeted earlier this month.
In 2012, Musk signed the Giving Pledge, an initiative started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that requires signatories to donate at least half of their wealth over their lifetime, and primarily donated for science education. and engineering, renewable energy research, pediatric research, and human space exploration research.
But a Forbes estimate in September revealed that Musk had given only $ 100 million so far – less than 1% of his net worth.
Nonetheless, Musk’s proposed carbon capture competition would go towards a cause that is likely to play a major role in tackling climate change in the future, particularly under the Biden administration.
Read more: VCs share 46 climate tech startups set to explode in 2021
A study published in November in Scientific Reports concluded that companies and governments urgently need to “start developing technologies for the large-scale removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere,” a process known as name of carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Earth’s temperatures are already on track to exceed levels that the Paris climate agreement – which President Joe Biden joined on Wednesday – set as targets for 2100.
But even if all greenhouse gas emissions stopped by then, according to the study, at least 33 gigatons of carbon dioxide would have to be sucked out of the atmosphere each year using carbon capture – roughly the total amount of carbon dioxide in the world’s fossil fuel. oil industry emitted in 2018 (36 gigatons).
The technology is increasingly accepted as a safe and potentially effective form of geoengineering over other approaches, and Biden has expressed support in his campaign platform, saying his administration will take action to ” accelerate the development and deployment of carbon sequestration technology. “
Specifically, Biden wants to make carbon capture more widely available, cheaper, and scalable, and plans to increase federal investments and tax incentives to develop the technology.
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