The UK has no plans to use a controversial technique to block some of the sun’s rays in a bid to cool the planet, saying that the Antarctic isn’t the place to experiment with risky interventions to slow rising sea levels.
The announcement comes after a team of more than three dozen polar scientists warned this week that proposals to artificially cool the world’s polar regions are expensive and potentially dangerous. Actions such as spraying reflective particles high into the atmosphere to deflect sunlight, known as solar radiation modification, or spreading glass beads over the ice to achieve a similar cooling effect — are also unfeasible, they said.
“The government is not in favor of solar radiation management,” the UK said in response to a report by parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee. “Many parties considered Antarctica was not the place for experimentation given the potentially significant environmental implications.”
A number of moonshot solutions to cool the planet have gained traction in recent years amid faltering efforts to stem global warming by cutting emissions. Some scientists and entrepreneurs argue that now is the time to explore all options in the face of surpassing potential warming “tipping points” that could threaten life on Earth.
But others fear the unintended side effects of such efforts, and argue that those interventions are a distraction from strategies such as adaptation and reducing emissions by transitioning to a greener economy.
In a separate report this week, the European Union warned that the benefits of geoengineering solutions were “highly uncertain,” and risk being used by malicious actors. The bloc has previously said it would join an international effort to assess large-scale interventions to combat climate change.
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