A major environmental group will reportedly invest millions of dollars into research into solar geoengineering, a solution to climate change that has sparked skepticism and even fears of unintended consequences.
Solar geoengineering includes a range of strategies to cool the Earth by reflecting sunlight, perhaps by artificially brightening clouds or pushing reflective particles into the atmosphere. Rogue testing of these theories raises alarms because scientists don’t know much about the other effects it could have. There are calls for more research to close these knowledge gaps before more trials can be conducted.
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) plans to provide “millions of dollars” in funding for solar geoengineering research, New York Times Report. EDF told edge It shares the same concerns about solar geoengineering, which is why it supports research into the potential impacts it could have.
‘We are very worried about unintended consequences’
“We are very worried about unintended consequences [solar geoengineering]which is why we are focusing on policy-relevant research that will help estimate potential impacts and develop the policy-relevant science necessary to help governments make informed decisions,” Lisa Dilling, EDF deputy chief scientist, said in an email .
EDF declined to say how much money it would invest in solar geoengineering research. It also declined to say who was funding the scheme, despite New York Times Named LAD Climate Fund (led by partners who have held leadership positions at Cisco Systems) as one of its donors.
Deering said next steps include working with scientists “to develop a research agenda focused on near-term impacts” and creating “governance structures.” With these guardrails in place, EDF plans to reward research projects whose results are expected to be shared in journals and conferences.
Intense discussions at the United Nations Environment Assembly in March failed to produce new international guidelines for solar geoengineering. A global moratorium on certain types of large-scale geoengineering has been in place since 2010. The language is vague and does not include small-scale experiments that have made progress in recent years.
Last week, Alameda, Calif., voted to prevent University of Washington scientists from testing a new technology for spraying sea salt particles. This is part of a strategy to make clouds more reflective, called marine cloud brightening (MCB). More than 30 scientists published a paper in the journal scientific progress March A research roadmap for MCB is proposed.
“Interest in MCBs is growing, but policymakers currently do not have the information they need to decide if and when to deploy MCBs,” said Graham Feingold, lead author of the study and a researcher at NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory, on December 12, 2019. stated in the press release.
Last year, a decidedly unscientific solar geoengineering agency sparked a backlash. Mexico has banned future experiments after a geoengineering startup launched weather balloons filled with sulfur dioxide across its territory. The co-founders started experimenting again in Nevada, grilling biocides in parking lots to generate sulfur dioxide gas.
As a pollutant, sulfur dioxide causes acid rain. Sending reflective particles into the atmosphere, called stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), could also expand the Antarctic ozone hole. These are just a few of the reasons experts worry about advancing solar geoengineering without a better understanding of the potential impacts.
Ultimately, environmental advocates want to ensure that solar geoengineering does not impact efforts to transition to clean energy — the only way to truly control climate change.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible is critical to combating climate change. It remains a top priority for EDF,” said EDF’s Dilling.
