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Hi,

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2251346.ece

The idea is already being used to develop ways of capturing carbon dioxide from power stations, but Sir Richard's prize will focus on stimulating ways of capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - a much harder task because the gas will be in lower concentrations compared to the emissions from a power station chimney.

It will be interesting to see whether Branson's prize somehow specifically disallows ocean iron fertilization...since ocean iron fertilization is almost certainly far, far less expensive than ambient air scrubbing towers.

Thank goodness for the ingenuity and pragmatism of airline bosses! Virgin has given birth to a savior! Instead of getting killed by eco-warrior-cum-commentators, they will now have the best of all worlds:

i) It's a great PR campaign for an airline boss to save the world
ii) It will will make crusaders against "unsustainable air travel" look like irresponsible luddites who oppose technological progress and salvation.
iii) Better still, the prize will endow geo-engineering with the political legitimacy it deserves.
iv) Last but not least, it provides the prize judges (can you name *any* prophet of doom more gloomy than the Branson team?) a constructive venture, for a change, that may actually help to mend their depressive mood and restore their hope for the future.

Well done Richard Branson!

It's a great PR move by a carbon-heavy industry, but as any resulting technology itself is unlikely to make CO2 scrubbing profitable, it is ultimately a distraction.

Inplementation of all CO2 scrubbing/sequestration technologies will require either a global treaty on cost-sharing or global coordination of other policies that place a price on CO2 emissions. If we can make progress on the latter then we will see a miriad of private research efforts on top of those already existing, since there will be a market for reducing CO2 emissions or in creating offsets.

Of course there will be technological solutions; the problem is that there are no present incentives to employ them, and only limited prospective incentives to invest in developing them.