When the history of the world is written 50 years from now the Bush administration will be found seriously wanting on global warming and climate change, according to entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.

He was responding to a question from the floor at the Leaders in Dubai Business Forum 2007 yesterday (November 19) asking what he felt industrialised nations had done to tackle the problem of global warming.

Sir Richard said China had a better track record than the US even though, like India and a lot of other countries, it still had a long way to go.

“But America as the biggest culprit should be doing more – it’s absolutely dire what America has done under the Bush Administration,” he added.

Sir Richard said he had done a lot of personal research into the likely impacts of global warming and he was horrified by the thought that, in as little as 50 years without changes, Earth may not longer be sustainable for fish and possibly even humans. Global warming could see such Dubai icons as the Palm islands and The World, disappear under the waves.

He has committed US3 billion in profits from the Virgin transportation group over the next 10 years to try and find an an environmentally friendly bio fuel, as well as offering a $25 million prize for anybody who could come up with a solution that would remove global warming gases from the atmosphere.

At present Virgin Atlantic was working with General Electric, Boeing and Virgin Fuels to develop a biofuel that would make up 20 per cent of the fuel load of a 747 by next year with the hope that a 100 per cent environmentally friendly fuel can be developed in the future.

Sir Richard said with oil approaching $100 a barrel there were good financial reasons for wanting to find an alternative and he believed global warming imperatives means that the use of conventional oil and coal fuels will be reduced in 5 to 10 years.

When questioned about the environmental ethics of Virgin Galactic – Sir Richard’s space tourism venture – he said NASA was using 40 year old technology to put its vehicles into space, which used as much energy as required to generate two weeks electricity for the whole of New York, whereas Virgin Galactic was achieving the same thing with less of a carbon footprint than it took to fly from London to Dubai and return in a 747.

If the engineers were right, it would be only 10-20 years before advanced technology of the kind being used by Virgin Galactic could see people fly from Dubai to Sydney or Los Angeles in half an hour.

Leaders in Dubai Business Forum 2007 is supported by founding sponsors: Citi Private Bank and Nokia; Leading Master Developer: Dubai Properties; Headline Sponsors: Addax Bank, Bidaya and The Monarch Dubai; Supporting Sponsors: Omniyat, Ithmar Capital, Al Barari, Damac Properties and Dubai Real Estate; Official Technology Partner: Fujitsu Siemens; Knowledge Partner: SP Jain; Official Event Courier: TCS. – TradeArabia News Service