Global Warming: Where Governments Have Failed, Branson Wants to Step In

Perhaps it’s a case of big business aiming to bail out government, for a change.

The response by government to the threat of global warming has been underwhelming so far, a fact that remains little changed despite the political agreement negotiated at the U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December. But at least one business leader, the British billionaire and founder of the Virgin Group Richard Branson, says he has heard the alarm from scientists and environmentalists about climate change, and believes that the world must not waste time shifting away from oil and other fossil fuels.

“There are some of us who believe that the problem of warming is as bad as the First and Second World Wars combined,” Branson told TIME in a recent interview at the climate summit in Copenhagen. “It’s that serious, and you know the key is carbon, [but] there’s no war room coordinating the attack on carbon.”

So, Branson has taken it upon himself