(Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Business 2.0 Magazine has identified the Best business ideas in the world. This is the first in a series that will appear here throughout the next month. Check back daily for updates.

Where others see disaster, Richard Branson sees opportunity. The founder of Virgin Group has business interests on six continents, including airlines, express trains, and limousine services, so his company's contribution to global warming worries him.

But instead of wringing his hands, Branson sees a new fortune to be made in reinventing the fuel business, much the way he's made over air travel, credit cards, health care, and more.

He's investing in conventional ideas like ethanol plants and solar power, but he's also developing a formula for a new ultraclean fuel that can power his jets as well as cars and trucks.

What we love about Branson is that he's part Warren Buffett, part P.T. Barnum. Not every idea he's dreamed up has panned out: Virgin Cola bombed in the United States, and the irresistibly named Virgin Brides retail chain is down to one lonely store in Manchester, England.