Elon Musk announces $100 million prize money to fight global warming

Tesla owner and billionaire entrepreneur, Elon Musk, has announced a prize of $100 million to any investor who is able to find a solution to battle global warming.

Musk has urged people to come ahead with ideas on fighting global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and ocean.

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"Right now we've only got one planet," he said. "Even a 0.1 percent chance of disaster – why run that risk? That's crazy!"

The SpaceX owner has given a period of four years for investors to come up with successful ideas to win the prize money. The "largest incentive prize in history" will last till Earth Day, 2025.

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"Both cost and scalability need to be addressed. Is it going to be enough carbon to matter, and can we afford it as a civilisation? Those are two things that matter," Musk said in a video message.

As per calculations made by experts, removing carbon can cost more than $300 per metric tonne as the world emits nearly 50 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in a year.

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"I think this is one of those things that is going to take a while to figure out what the right solution is," he said. "And especially to figure out what the best economics are for CO2 removal."

Organisers will go through the initial guidelines and churn out a list of rules by May. Till then one of the important things the contenders should remember is that they are required to have a plan to sustain the technology for at least the next 100 years.