At island retreat, Branson and friends seek to save a world 'on fire'

By Andrew Ross Sorkin Published: March 20, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/20/business/deal.php

NECKER ISLAND,British Virgin Islands: Richard Branson was lounging under the starry midnight sky on this palm-dappled speck of an island recently when he popped a sobering question.

"So, do we really think the world is on fire?" Branson, the British magnate and adventurer, asked several guests, as a manservant scurried off to fetch him another glass of pinot grigio.

What he wanted to know was whether his high-powered visitors, among them Larry Page of Google, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, thought global warming threatened the planet.

Branson does - and so did most of his guests. So on this recent weekend on his private hideaway in the crystalline waters between the islands of Tortola and Anegada, they tried to figure out what to do about it and perhaps get richer in the process.

Some of them, like Page, carbon-consciously jet-pooled in from Silicon Valley, where the financiers who bankrolled the Web boom of the 1990s have started chasing the new "New New Thing": green power. In an era of $100-plus oil, venture capitalists like Vinod Khosla, another invitee, are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into young companies that cook up biofuels and harness the power of the sun.

Blair, who is now a senior adviser to JPMorgan Chase, squeezed in a few idyllic days here between assignments (he left early for Jerusalem). Another attendee only sort-of showed up. The Medusa, the 198-foot, or 60-meter, yacht owned by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, was moored off Necker Island all weekend, but Allen never came ashore.

The Caribbean getaway was the brainchild of Richard Stromback, a former professional hockey player who struck gold as a clean-technology entrepreneur. Stromback, the chief executive of Ecology Coatings, joked that a gathering like this might seem nefarious to some people.

"In James Bond movies, evil-doers meet in exotic settings to plot the destruction of the planet," Stromback said, puffing on a cigar before dinner one night. But the people here, he said, were plotting to save the planet.

So far, however, the hopes and dreams of alternative energy have far outstripped reality. But for Stromback and many of the other participants, a confluence of two powerful forces - soaring oil prices and growing concern over global warming - means the era of economically viable green power is finally at hand.

Many executives and financiers, including some in attendance at the retreat, have a lot of money riding on global warming. Branson, for example, has invested in a host of alternative energy enterprises, including existing businesses within his sprawling Virgin Group.

Khosla, the founding chief executive of Sun Microsystems and one of the most successful venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, has at least 33 investments in "clean tech," including new fermentation technology to make fuel-grade ethanol.

Much of the weekend was spent hashing over ideas in Branson's new open-air yoga pavilion. Talk ranged from the practicality of electric-powered cars to how much money would have to be invested in biofuels to reduce the price of crude to $35 a barrel, a prospect Khosla said was possible within the next 15 years.

But the big question that hung over the meeting was whether the nations or the world could ever work together to tackle climate change and emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

"We have an agreement that there should be an agreement," said Blair, who was dressed in a white polo shirt, blue cargo shorts and sneakers. "But there's no agreement on what that agreement should be."

Blair predicted that the United States would soon adopt a so-called cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, as the European Union has done with mixed success. "I'm a little skeptical that it will work unless it's part of a global deal," he added.

As an alternative, Shai Agassi, the former president of SAP's product and technology group, suggested having companies buy carbon insurance. Insurance companies, after all, price all kinds of risks. "They know how to put a price on it better than the bookies," said Agassi, whose start-up, Better PLC of Palo Alto, California, has been trying to create the infrastructure to operate a countrywide fleet of electric vehicles in Israel.

Everyone, it seemed, had some project in the works. Elon Musk, the co-founder of PayPal, talked about his latest project, Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley company that makes sexy electric sports cars retailing for $100,000. Page has ordered one.

D. Hunt Ramsbottom, chief executive of the synthetic fuel technology company Rentech, talked about his plans to make biofuels for airplanes. William McDonough, the designer, showed off pictures of some of his latest projects: a building in Abu Dhabi with solar panels built into the windows, and a Wal-Mart distribution center with an energy-friendly grass roof.

And Page, who got married on Necker Island a few months ago, talked about problems that Google had faced in trying get permits to use solar energy.

There was plenty of time for fun and games, of course. After lunch one afternoon, Branson suggested that the entire gang sail off to Mosquito, a nearby island he also owns, aboard a dozen catamarans. He said there was a party over there.

Page, an avid kite surfer, struck out alone. One of Blair's security personal trailed behind in a motorboat. As the catamarans beached up on Mosquito, music was blaring and bikini-clad women were dancing. Branson deadpanned, "Normally the girls would be naked, but the prime minister is here."

>Subject: A must-read from Bob
>
>
>Folks,
>
>An item to add to John Brignell's apposite appraisal of zealotry, with apologies to those of you that may already have seen it in Benny Peiser's latest newsletter). It's a breathtaking glimpse of what really goes on behind the scenes:
>
><http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=11293401>
>
>that prompts two questions: (i) How do I get an invitation to events like this?; and, somewhat more soberly, (ii) Isn't this the sort of stuff that led to the French revolution?
>
>Bob
>
>
>
>Bob
>
>Professor R.M. Carter
>Marine Geophysical Laboratory
>James Cook University
>Townsville, Qld. 4811
>AUSTRALIA
>
>Phone: +61-7-4781-4397
>Fax: +61-7-4781-4334
>Home: +61-7-4775-1268
>Mobile: 0419-701-139

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