The United Kingdom is set to fund geoengineering experiments as a means of fighting alleged climate change.
According to the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), the government agency supporting the £50m program, the experiments will “explore whether approaches designed to delay, or avert, climate tipping points could be feasible, scalable, and safe.”
“Decarbonisation is vital, but our current progress puts us at risk of triggering a large number of temperature-induced climate tipping points,” program director Mark Symes said. “This programme will explore critical unanswered questions as to how (or whether) we might cool the Earth safely and responsibly on the timescales required to avoid climate catastrophe.”
The program’s thesis argues that successful outcomes from the activities include “ruling particular options out from further study as technically infeasible, ruling them out as infeasible due to risks that cannot be adequately constrained, or highlighting which approaches show promise and would benefit from further research and development.”
Common geoengineering approaches include “stratospheric aerosol injection, marine cloud brightening, increasing the reflectivity of the Earth’s surface (e.g. by re-growing ice sheets), and constructing space-based reflectors to shade the Earth from a proportion of incoming sunlight,” although the thesis notes that these experiments include “many poorly-constrained risks.”
Where the U.K. government is expected to approve the project, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Trump administration is investigating the activities of a geoengineering company.
The company, called Make Sunsets, has launched balloons with the compound in an effort to generate “cooling” credits using sulfur dioxide, a substance that poses a risk to respiratory health.
“The idea that individuals, supported by venture capitalists, are putting criteria air pollutants into the air to sell ‘cooling’ credits shows how climate extremism has overtaken common sense,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. “Based on Make Sunsets’ responses to our information request, we will look into all our authorities to ensure that we continue maintaining clean air for all Americans.”
