Elon Musk to Offer $100-Million Prize for 'Best' Carbon Capture Technology

Musk is expected to announce further details next week, as per his tweet.

By Reuters | Updated: 22 January 2021 11:19 IST

Elon Musk to Offer $100-Million Prize for 'Best' Carbon Capture Technology

Elon Musk now leads some of the most futuristic companies in the world

Highlights

Besides Tesla, Musk heads rocket company SpaceX and Neuralink
US President Biden pledged to accelerate development of carbon capture
Capturing planet-warming emissions is becoming a part of many plans

Tesla chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk took to Twitter to promise a $100-million (roughly Rs. 730 crores) prize for development of the "best" technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions.

Capturing planet-warming emissions is becoming a critical part of many plans to keep climate change in check, but very little progress has been made on the technology to date, with efforts focused on cutting emissions rather than taking carbon out of the air.

The International Energy Agency said late last year that a sharp rise in the deployment of carbon capture technology was needed if countries are to meet net-zero emissions targets.

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"Am donating $100M (roughly Rs. 730 crores) towards a prize for best carbon capture technology," Musk wrote in a tweet, followed by a second tweet that promised "Details next week."

Am donating $100M towards a prize for best carbon capture technology
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2021

Tesla officials did not immediately respond to a request for additional information.

Musk, who co-founded and sold Internet payments company PayPal, now leads some of the most futuristic companies in the world.

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Besides Tesla, he heads rocket company SpaceX and Neuralink, a startup that is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.

Newly-sworn-in US President Joe Biden has pledged to accelerate the development of carbon capture technology as part of his sweeping plan to tackle climate change. On Thursday, he named Jennifer Wilcox, an expert in carbon removal technologies, as the principal deputy assistant secretary for fossil energy at the US Department of Energy.

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