By Hyunjoo Jin and Nichola Groom
(Reuters) -Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday offered inventors $100 million in prize money to develop ways to fight global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or ocean.
“Right now we’ve only got one planet, said Musk, CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Inc. “Even a 0.1% chance of disaster — why run that risk? That’s crazy!”
In January, Musk announced his intention to offer $100 million in prizes and set out the contest rules on Thursday, Earth Day. What organizers called the “largest incentive prize in history” will last for four years through Earth Day, 2025.
“I don’t think we are currently doomed,” Musk said. “If we keep going, complacent, there is some risk of non linear climate change.”
Carbon capture and storage has drawn growing interest as a warming climate has melted glaciers, intensified tropical storms and resulted in “sunny day flooding” of more and more coastal areas. While countries are working to reduce emissions, scientists say carbon removal technology will also be crucial to the goal of getting emissions to net zero by 2050.
Carbon capture projects have already drawn backing from Silicon Valley startups aiming for a technological solution to climate change, public officials worried about the slow pace of cutting emissions, and emitters including oil companies seeking to offset their climate impacts.
The technology is not yet commercially viable. Removing carbon costs more than $300 per metric tonne in a world that each year emits greenhouse gases equivalent to about 50 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. By 2050, some 10 billion tonnes of carbon capture may be needed, by some estimates.
Musk’s $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal is aimed at finding a viable solution for taking 1,000 tonnes out of the atmosphere annually, with potential to scale up dramatically.
Musk has built a reputation as an industrialist focused on environmentalism, turning electric car maker Tesla into the world’s most valuable vehicle company and expanding into solar power so customers can charge their rides carbon-free.
Contest entrants should “show a sustainable path to achieving low cost at gigatonne scale,” organizers XPRIZE has said on its website.
There are plenty of Silicon Valley startups eager to compete. Venture capital-backed carbon removal companies raised $336.5 million last year, according to PitchBook.
On Monday, XPRIZE announced two winners of a separate, $20 million prize to develop technologies to covert emissions from power plants into concrete. One is CarbonCure Technologies, based in Canada and backed by separate funds by Bill Gates, Amazon.com Inc and others.
The United Nations has said carbon removal technology is needed to limit increase in planetary warming and avoid catastrophic climate impacts. But some environmentalists have argued that focusing on carbon removal reflects a lack of resolve to end the use of fossil fuels.
Exxon Mobil this week proposed a $100 billion public-private carbon storage project that would collect emissions from U.S. petrochemical plants in Texas and bury them under the Gulf of Mexico.
Major energy companies including Occidental Petroleum, Total and Chevron are among the top players investing in carbon removal as they face pressure from investors and governments to reduce emissions.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom and Hyunjoo Jin; editing by Peter Henderson and David Gregorio)
