Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that he will donate $ 100 million as a prize for the best carbon capture technology.
Carbon Capture
Carbon capture, also called “carbon capture and storage” (CCS), is what people call processes that involve capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) at the emission source and sequestrating it so that it doesn’t leak into the air.
Sometimes it also involves technologies to use carbon for other purposes.
The concept was suggested as a potential solution to slow climate change, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere or even reversing it in the future.
However, current carbon capture technologies have proven to be inefficient and add costs to energy production – making it uncompetitive without carbon prices.
Elon Musk is getting involved
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced a plan to encourage the development of carbon capture technology, offering a $ 100 million prize for “best carbon capture”:
He did not reveal more about the distribution of the award, but said more information would be released next week.
How it fits into Tesla’s plan
Musk previously said that Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the advent of electric transport and renewable energy to tackle climate change.
In a conference parallel to the Paris Agreement, Tesla’s CEO described the emission of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the “most stupid experiment in history”.
He explained that due to the finite nature of fossil fuels, we, as humanity, will eventually have to make the transition to renewable energy.
So it is “stupid” not to want to make the transition as soon as possible if we do not know the extent of the consequences of changing the content of the atmosphere, and the worst scenarios are quite devastating.
Musk said:
“The worst case, however, is more displacement and destruction than all the wars in history combined. These are the best / worst case scenarios. So, we have about 3% of scientists who believe in the best case. About 97% of those who believe in the worst case. That’s why I call it the dumbest experiment in history. Why would you do that?”
Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the transition to try to avoid the worst case scenario, but if necessary, carbon capture can be essential to limit or reverse the impact of this “stupid science experiment”.
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