Branson bets billions to curb global warming
NEW YORK - British business mogul Richard Branson on Thursday announced a multibillion-dollar investment in efforts to combat global warming over the next decade.
Branson, the billionaire behind Virgin Air and the multi-platform Virgin brand, unveiled the details of the investment at the Clinton Global Initiative, a conference being hosted by former President Clinton.
The commitment would in one stroke ensure that the conference, which brings people together to brainstorm tangible solutions to global issues, would more than meet its goal of matching last year's efforts. In 2005, the conference resulted in more than $2 billion in pledges; even before Branson's effort, this year's conference had already brought in more than $350 million.
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Not your traditional ethanol
Last year, Branson said he planned to turn his back on hydrocarbons and use plant waste to power his four airlines, which operate almost 100 aircraft.
“We are looking for alternative fuel sources. We are going to start building cellulosic ethanol plants (to make) fuel that is derived from the waste product of the plant,” he said at the time.
“It is 100 percent environmentally friendly and I believe it’s the future of fuel, and over the next 20 or 30 years I think it actually will replace the conventional fuel that you get out of the ground.”
Branson did not say where Virgin would build his factories or how economically viable cellulosic ethanol would prove. “We are in the early days,” he admitted.
He said cellulosic ethanol “is the byproduct you get from the waste product (of plants), the bits in the field that get burned up,” as opposed to traditional ethanol, which is produced mainly from corn or sugar cane.
Using organic waste, or biomass, could be substantially cheaper than corn or sugar cane since that waste is not a primary product but simply residue from other agriculture or logging.
“We use around 700 million gallons of fuel a year between the four airlines,” Branson said. “I hope that over the next five to six years we can replace some or all of that” with plant-based ethanol.
Clean water project
The initiative began Wednesday with a slew of world figures, among them first lady Laura Bush, who announced a partnership aimed at bringing clean drinking water to communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
The program, called Play Pumps, will install specially designed playground equipment that will use the force generated by children using the equipment to pump clean water from beneath the ground.
"Play pumps are fueled by an endless energy source: children at play," Bush said.
The program will be financed by $16 million from U.S. government agencies and the Case Foundation and the MCJ Foundation.
There are already about 700 play pumps in use in the countries of southern Africa, said Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation. The money announced Wednesday will pay for about 1,000 more, and the goal is to have 4,000 in use by 2010, reaching about 10 million people.
The list of invited guests for the conference includes such diverse voices as Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, cyclist Lance Armstrong, CBS News anchor Katie Couric, actor Don Cheadle and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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