MEDIA BRIEF
September 11, 2023
DEBUNKING SOLAR GEOENGINEERING
Solar geoengineering is neither insurance nor a plan B for climate “overshoot;” it puts us directly on a path to disaster.
The science is clear: We can still prevent irreversible harm to the climate, ecosystems, and human rights, and the only way to do so is a rapid, full, and equitable phase-out of all fossil fuels. Yet, heading into COP28, warnings, especially from those with vested interest, are sending the message that it might be “too late” to avoid overshooting the 1.5°C boundary. This doomsday message is closely followed by dangerous claims that assure there might be another way to address some of the symptoms of the climate crisis: solar geoengineering or solar radiation modification (SRM). This is a catch-all phrase for a set of technological fixes intended to manipulate the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, and are widely regarded as some of the most extreme and existentially threatening technologies ever conceived.
While the fossil fuel industry has been researching and patenting geoengineering technologies for decades, increasing amounts of funding for solar geoengineering research are now coming from philanthropists and elites linked to the corporate, finance and high-tech sectors, and also the public sector, mostly in the United States.
Worryingly, the efforts by a small group of actors to sanitize and normalize the idea of solar geoengineering are gaining some traction, and causing the topic to rise in the more mainstream political agenda. For example:
Solar geoengineering is neither insurance to “buy time” nor any form of supplement to mitigation. It is a recipe for disaster that delays climate action and real solutions. The claim that it could ever be a “Plan B” is as false as it is dangerous for the following reasons::
Solar geoengineering will not work: Proponents routinely suggest solar geoengineering would provide the ability to dial down the warming effects of the sun in supposedly controlled ways. This idea has been repeatedly debunked as a myth by the scientific community. In reality, the technology would further destabilize an already deeply disturbed climate system.
Solar geoengineering is risky and uncertain: The IPCC has warned these technologies are not a credible solution because of both their extreme impacts and their enormous uncertainties. Masking global warming with sunlight reduction would bring huge shifts in atmospheric circulation and would massively affect rainfall patterns, especially in countries already impacted by climate chaos. Models show that solar geoengineering could bring droughts and impact the monsoon that sustains the livelihood of billions of people.
Solar geoengineering is untestable: No models could ever predict with absolute certainty the real impacts of solar geoengineering. The only way to test it would be to deploy it, putting ecosystems and millions of human lives at risk in a gamble against the sun. Technologies such as Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI - which involves spreading chemicals into the stratosphere) are basically untestable, since any experiment that would give information about the actual impact on the global climate would equal deployment. The risks of research into solar geoengineering are significant.
Solar geoengineering is at odds with international law: Development and deployment of solar geoengineering is inconsistent with legal obligations and principles under international human rights and environmental law. It is also under a de-facto moratorium by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). A report prepared by the Advisory Committee to the Human Rights Council affirms that “new technologies intended for climate protection” (NTCP, including SRM) “could seriously interfere with the enjoyment of human rights for millions and perhaps billions of people,” that their deployment would be contrary to existing States obligations. Because of the moral hazard risk, they obstruct emission cuts and systemic changes. Therefore, the Advisory Committee concludes that “restrictive regulations including potentially a moratorium should be adopted.” “SRM is ungovernable, which warrants a ban on its development and implementation, as well as regulation of related research.” Finally, the recently released Maastricht Principles state that geoengineering may violate state obligations to protect the human rights of future generations.
Solar geoengineering would require unprecedented global governance: Any technology aimed at impacting the global climate would require a significant infrastructure (e.g., mining and production of chemicals, operation of airplanes to spray the chemicals, military defense to prevent “counter-geoengineering” by hostile nations, etc.) that only powerful nation states or military regimes would be able to sustain. In the case of SAI, once it is launched, it would need to be sustained for generations, if not for centuries or more. Stopping it – for example in the event of a regime change or change of mind by some powerful leader – would trigger a so-called ‘termination shock’ where the temperature would suddenly rise in line with existing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. The technology hence requires governance systems much more sophisticated than anything that has ever existed and that would have to function over centuries or millennia – an impossible requirement.
Indigenous Peoples have rejected and opposed solar geoengineering: Indigenous Peoples are strongly tied to their ecosystems for their subsistence, spiritual ways, and identity. For instance, geoengineering as global terraforming would have far reaching and unpredictable impacts on ecosystems that are strongly interdependent. Geoengineering is also a collective peoples human rights issue that would inevitably cause extreme hardships, and destabilize inherent relationships. Therefore, Indigenous Peoples have taken clear, critical positions against geoengineering. Indigenous Peoples are facing solar geoengineering outdoor experiments that do not respect their right to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). They have rejected these projects, including in Alaska and Sweden, as a human rights abuse against Indigenous Peoples, as well as for being a false solution embedded in the very mindsets and frameworks that created the climate crisis in the first place.
Civil society and the climate community worldwide continue to say “no” to solar geoengineering: The Hands Off Mother Earth! Alliance has over 200 member organizations from 45 countries, including 31 international organizations, who oppose geoengineering. The climate justice movement, including the biggest network of the global climate movement, Climate Action Network International, opposes solar geoengineering.
Over 450 leading academics from over 50 countries are calling for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering. This non-use agreement would prohibit governments from supporting the dangerous development of solar geoengineering technologies with their taxpayer funds, and ban all outdoor experiments, patenting, and deployment. A non-use agreement could be the first major step for political and policy actors to align around the reality that there is no way out of the climate crisis through illusionary techno-fixes and band-aids. It would send a clear message that governments and other political actors are seriously committed to avert climate collapse through the only viable option: a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels. The Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement has been endorsed by numerous civil society organizations who are also raising the alarm on the harm of solar geoengineering’s on-going development and potential future deployment.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON SOLAR GEOENGINEERING
CONTACT FOR INTERVIEWS WITH ACADEMICS AND CIVIL SOCIETY WORKING ON THIS TOPIC
Lili Fuhr, Fossil Economy Program Director, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL):
lfuhr@ciel.org and press@ciel.org, +49 162 9711976
Hands off Mother Earth (HOME) Alliance: coordinator@handsoffmotherearth.org
Panganga Pungowiyi, Climate Geoengineering Organizer, Indigenous Environmental Network: panganga@ienearth.org
Silvia Ribeiro, Latin American Director, ETC Group: silvia@etcgroup.org, +52 55 2653 3330
Carol Bardi, Coordinator of the Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement: coordinator@solargeoeng.org +31 6 51 35 62 05