Elon Musk to donate $100 million towards prize for carbon capture technology

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday said he would donate $100 million towards a prize for the best carbon capture technology.

“Am donating $100M towards a prize for best carbon capture technology,” Musk said in a tweet.

The Tesla CEO, who recently surpassed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person as per media reports, did not provide details about the donation.

“Details next week,” Musk added.

The donation is likely to be connected to a non-profit organisation, Xprize Foundation, that hosts competitions to encourage technology development and innovation, TechCrunch reported citing a person familiar with the plan.

As the name suggests, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) at the source before it is released into the atmosphere.

Removing waste amounts of CO2 from the environment is necessary to mitigate the impact of climate change, according to experts. Carbon capture and storage can help towards the initiative.

Various start-ups are working on solutions for carbon capture. A start-up called LanzaTech, for example, has developed a technology that can capture waste gas emissions, the TechCrunch report said. These are then turned into usable ethanol fuel using bacteria.

A few other initiatives are exploring other ways to reduce greenhouse gases by using minerals, trees, plants and soil.

Many also encouraged the Tesla CEO to donate towards reforestation instead and “plant more trees” in response to the tweet.

US President Joe Biden has also proposed to “accelerate the development and deployment of carbon capture sequestration technology” as part of his administration's plans to combat climate change.

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