Branson

LONDON (AP):

British tycoon Richard Branson dangled a US$25 million prize before the world's top scientists on Friday to spur research into devising a way to suck greenhouse gases out of the air.

Former United States Vice-President, Al Gore, lent his support to the challenge, which Branson said was akin to a 17th-century quest to revolutionise navigation by determining longitude.

Branson hopes his contest will result in the development of a viable machine to vacuum carbon dioxide emissions from the Earth's atmosphere - an idea many scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledge is possible.

A landmark report by the world's leading climate scientists and government officials, published in Paris last week, warned that 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.

He compared the quest to a competition launched in 1675 to devise a method of estimating longitude accurately. It was 60 years before English clockmaker John Harrison discovered an accurate method and received his prize from King George III.

"The Earth cannot wait 60 years. We need everybody capable of discovering an answer to put their minds to it today," Branson said.

University of Calgary engineering professor, David Keith, who has developed a provisional patent on carbon atmospheric capture technology, said, "There's no mystery about doing it, it's all about what it costs."

"People have been doing it for 50 years ... after all the plant in my office does it," Keith said. The key is making the process cost-effective, he added.