Billionaire Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson has committed an estimated $3 billion over the next 10 years, or all of the profits from his airline and rail businesses, to combat global warming.
Branson was speaking at a news conference at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York yesterday.
'We have to wean ourselves off our dependence on coal and fossil fuels. Our generation has the knowledge, it has the financial resources and as importantly it has the will power to do so,' he said.
Most international experts say emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, are the primary cause of a rise in temperatures over the past century.
Branson's announcement comes a day after the Bush administration said it was committing $3 billion to climate technology research and development.
