Even supposing the world’s richest elevated their wealth dramatically throughout the pandemic, there have been nonetheless some moments of philanthropy that may even heat the guts, and hands, of Bernie Sanders himself.
The latest is from Elon Musk, the person battling it out with Jeff Bezos for world’s richest particular person, who has introduced an initiative that targets innovation associated to local weather change.
In a contest introduced late final week, Musk says he’ll give $100 million in prize cash for the particular person or workforce who can develop the most effective carbon seize know-how.
Carbon seize is designed to drag carbon emissions from the ambiance and retailer them, in an effort to cut back the quantity of take away greenhouse gases and, finally, decelerate associated local weather change. This has at all times been touted as an adjunct to carbon discount methods, however whereas progress in being made on that entrance, carbon seize know-how nonetheless has room for enchancment.
According to Julio Friedmann, a senior analysis scholar on the Middle on International Vitality Coverage at Columbia College, carbon seize know-how has truly been round, in early iterations, since 1938 however industrial services at this time are capturing “lower than one p.c of the CO2 that’s required to satisfy the Paris agreement targets for 2040.” However the excellent news, says Friedmann is that there are a number of applied sciences that present important promise and that it’s typically agreed that the processes are protected.
President Biden has additionally stated he plans to speed up the event of carbon seize by offering tax breaks and federal funding {dollars}. Musk’s try to sweeten the pot may imply accelerating this sort of improvement additional… and it might’t come a second too quickly.
