There are growing calls in recent years for research on “solar geoengineering“, a set of entirely speculative technologies to reduce incoming sunlight on earth in order to limit global warming. Our initiative stands against such emerging initiatives to explore planetary techno-fixes as a climate policy option. Solar geoengineering deployment at planetary scale cannot be fairly and effectively governed in the current system of international institutions. It also poses unacceptable risk if ever implemented as part of future climate policy. A strong political message from governments, the United Nations and civil society is urgently needed.

About

What is Solar Geoengineering?

Solar geoengineering (also known as solar radiation management or modification, SRM), refers to a set of speculative technologies to lower global temperatures by artificially intervening in the climate systems of our planet.

Read here our Open Letter calling for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering

The Open Letter is based on an extended peer-reviewed perspective article published in WIREs Climate Change on 17 January 2022.

Non-Use Agreement

A call for 5 core commitments and measures
1No public funding
The commitment to prohibit national funding agencies from supporting the development of technologies for solar geoengineering, domestically and through international institutions.
2No outdoor experiments
The commitment to ban outdoor experiments of solar geoengineering technologies.
3No patents
The commitment to not grant patent rights for technologies for solar geoengineering, including supporting technologies such as for the retrofitting of airplanes for aerosol injections.
4No deployment
The commitment to not deploy technologies for solar geoengineering if developed by third parties.
5No support in international institutions
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430 +
Academics
have signed the Open Letter
61
Countries
represented by these academics
35
Organizations
have endorsed the Open Letter
1600 +
Citizens
have signed the Petition

Quotes

Should We Block the Sun to Counter Climate Change?

Last month, a two-person start-up company by the name of Make Sunsets claimed that it had launched weather balloons filled with reflective sulfur particles into the sky somewhere over the coast of Baja California. As the world continues to fall short of the goals of the Paris agreement and the costs of climate change mount, is geoengineering an idea worth taking seriously, or is it a world-historically reckless distraction from the global effort to transition away from fossil fuels? Here’s a look at the debate.

In Major Move, Global Coalition Pushes for Moratorium on Solar Geoengineering

An international “coalition” of scientists and governance scholars launched an initiative on January 17 that calls for a moratorium on the study and development of a controversial climate-change mitigation strategy known as solar geoengineering.