Originally posted on sciy.org by Ron Anastasia on Thu 21 Sep 2006 01:23 PM PDT
Branson Pledges Billions to Fight Global Warming
Sir Richard Branson, the British magnate and adventurer, said today that all profits from his five airlines and train company, projected to be $3 billion through the next 10 years, would be invested in developing energy sources that do not contribute to global warming.
He announced the plan on the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative, a three-day meeting in Manhattan that amounts to a competitive festival of philanthropy run by former President Bill Clinton.
The money, he said, would be invested in a host of enterprises, including existing businesses within his Virgin Group of 200 companies, that are seeking ways to save energy or produce fuels, including aviation fuel, not derived from coal and oil.
When burned, coal, oil and other fossil fuels add to the atmosphere’s natural trace of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping greenhouse gas linked by scientists to rising temperatures.
“Our generation has inherited an incredibly beautiful world from our parents and they from their parents,†Mr. Branson said. “It is in our hands whether our children and their children inherit the same world. We must not be the generation responsible for irreversibly damaging the environment.â€
Mr. Branson said the idea had grown out of a visit to his London home a few months ago by former Vice President Al Gore, who is on a prolonged worldwide speaking tour to promote “An Inconvenient Truth,†his documentary and book about global warming.
“You are in a position maybe to make a difference,†Mr. Branson said Mr. Gore had told him. “If you can make a giant step forward other people will follow.â€
Mr. Branson said his companies are already engaged in developing an aviation fuel not derived from oil, as well as enzymes that can improve the efficiency of processes that break down the cellulose in grasses and other crops to produce ethanol and other farmed fuels.
On Sept. 10, he announced the creation of Virgin Fuels, a company that would invest up to $400 million over the next three years in biofuels. The first investment was made in Cilion, a new California company building ethanol refineries that Virgin officials said burn far less fossil fuel than conventional biofuel operations.
Mr. Branson said the prime goal was not making money, but financing research on ways to provide energy in a world of growing populations and economies without overheating the planet.
“Some will be profitable, some will not be profitable,†Mr. Branson said in a news conference. “But the only way global warming is going to be beaten is to invest in new fuels that can actually replace fossil fuels.â€
Several people working in climate research said the pledge appeared to be by far the largest individual commitment of research money, donated or invested, aimed at avoiding dangerous climate change.
Many experts say that private and government research on non-polluting energy options has lagged, even in the face of growing evidence of risks from rising concentrations of greenhouse gases, because venture capital is mostly aimed at a quick payoff and governments focus mainly on imminent risks.
Should the money flow as pledged, the research effort would far exceed similar efforts by governments. In February, President Bush announced a biofuels initiative for 2007 of $150 million, nearly a 60 percent increase over spending on such fuels in the previous budget. The overall United States budget for research in renewable energy sources like wind, solar, hydrogen and farmed fuels is a bit over $1 billion a year, but that amount is far less than what was spent during the oil shock of the 1970’s.
And while drug and semiconductor companies typically invest 10 percent or more of revenues into research, in the energy industry the typical research budget is about 0.3 percent of revenues, said Daniel Kammen, an energy expert at the University of California, Berkeley.
Kathleen D. McCarthy, director of the Center for the Study of Philanthropy at the City University of New York Graduate Center, said the scale, duration and style of Mr. Branson’s pledge were indicative of a deep shift in the way wealthy people were pursuing a legacy.
“This is all new — the scale, the vision, the techniques and the decentralized nature of it,†she said. “Branson is also specifically focusing on an issue that’s not being adequately addressed, particularly by this government.â€
In one swoop, Mr. Branson exceeded the tally of $2.1 billion in 107 separate pledges from individuals and companies on the first day of the meeting and the total of $2.5 billion raised in the first such meeting, held last year.
The conference is aimed at committing wealthy and powerful people and companies to work on problems that generally go begging, like poverty, urban development, and the global environment.
After Mr. Branson spoke, Mr. Clinton joined him and said, “No matter how cynical you are, that’s serious money.â€
He added that it was particularly important that this was a long-term commitment to the problem.
“I participated in opening two ethanol plants in 1979 and 1980, then oil went to $20 a barrel and everybody forgot about it,†Mr. Clinton said, alluding to the waxing and waning of government interest in such problems.
“We will never get the world to deal with a problem that is over the horizon, even if it’s just a few years over the horizon, unless we can prove we can do it with productive investments that incidentally create jobs, improve the national security of every country involved, and save the environment.
“And we can never prove that unless we have a certain aggregate amount of capital to apply to the task, so I am very, very grateful.â€
Another climate commitment announced at the conference came from Steve Bing, a wealthy California businessman and large donor to the Democratic Party.
Mr.
Bing said he would contribute $40 million to push for passage of
Proposition 87, an initiative on the California ballot in November
aimed at reducing the state’s dependence on petroleum 25 percent over
the next 10 years, which would be paid for with a fee charged on oil
drilling projects in the state.
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