Tesla chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk took to Twitter to promise a USD 100 million prize for development of the “best” technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions.

Capturing planet-warming emissions is becoming a critical part of many plans to keep climate change in check, but very little progress has been made on the technology to date, with efforts focused on cutting emissions rather than taking carbon out of the air.

The International Energy Agency said late last year that a sharp rise in the deployment of carbon capture technology was needed if countries are to meet net-zero emissions targets.

“Am donating USD 100 million towards a prize for best carbon capture technology”, - Musk wrote in a tweet, followed by a second tweet that promised “Details next week”.

Tesla officials did not immediately respond to a request for additional information.