Tesla founder Elon Musk has offered a $100 million prize for the “best” carbon capture technology.

The tech billionaire, who briefly overtook Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest man this month, tweeted the announcement and promised more details next week.

“Am donating $100M towards a prize for best carbon capture technology,” Mr Musk wrote.

Carbon Capture and Storage, untested at commercial scale, removes the carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels and transports it for permanent storage underground.

In response, several of Mr Musk’s followers who shared the tweet suggested a solution — plant more trees.
Mr Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, recently asked his 42.7 million Twitter followers how he should spend his fortune, now estimated at more than $201bn.