Branson pledges $3bn

Sir Richard Branson, the Chairman of Virgin, yesterday pledged $3bn to fight global warming.

Sir Richard told a news conference that the money would come from all the profit that he expects to make from his airline and rail businesses during the next 10 years.

The bulk of the money Mr. Branson expects to inject will go towards developing new 'greener' fuels for the airline industry, with the aim of making the airline industry less environmentally damaging.

While environment groups welcomed the pledge, Sir Richard Branson has not suddenly gone 'green' without reason. It is widely accepted that a carbon tax or carbon-emission trading schema aimed at the aviation industry will be introduced at some stage.

So the more that Mr. Branson's airlines can reduce their carbon footprint, the less is will cost him to run his businesses in the future.