Virgin boss offers US$ 25 million climate prize

British philanthropist and entrepreneur billionaire Sir Richard Branson has announced a US$ 25 million prize for the scientist who comes up with a way of extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

The Virgin Group chairman was joined by former US Vice President Al Gore and other leading environmentalists, February 9, as he announced the challenge to find the world's first viable design to capture and remove carbon dioxide from the air.

A landmark report by the world's leading climate scientists and government officials, published in Paris recently, warned global warming will continue for centuries, creating a far different planet in 100 years.

"Man created the problem, therefore man should solve the problem," Branson said.

"Could it be possible to find someone on earth who could devise a way of removing the lethal amount of Co2 from the Earth's atmosphere?" he asked, adding his wife Joan inspired him to make the challenge.

Branson compared it to a competition launched in 1675 to devise a method of estimating longitude accurately.

It was 60 years before English clock maker John Harrison discovered an accurate method and received his prize from King George III.