Solar Radiation Modification: A Risky Gambit Against Climate Change

What is Solar Radiation Modification?

Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) describes future speculative geoengineering techniques designed to partially block the sun, and mask the heating effect of greenhouse gasses.

SRM does nothing to tackle the root causes of climate change, is inherently unpredictable and risks further destabilizing an already destabilized system with more and new extremes. It would introduce a whole host of new environmental and social risks that are likely to impact those already suffering the worst impacts of climate change the hardest.

The Risks of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection

Widely discussed SRM techniques such as Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) carry the further risk of ‘termination shock’ where injections of chemicals into the stratosphere would need to be continued for decades if not hundreds of years to avoid the risk of a sudden spiraling of global temperatures on cessation. All SRM techniques have the very real risk of ‘moral hazard’ where relying on future speculative technologies delays real climate action in the near term.

Human Rights Concerns and Opposition

The United Nations Human Rights Council’s Advisory Committee has warned that geoengineering technologies “could seriously interfere with the enjoyment of human rights for millions and perhaps billions of people”. It also pointed out the disproportionate impact on Indigenous Peoples, peasants, fisherfolk, and others living in rural areas. These same groups have been vocal in rejecting geoengineering as a dangerous distraction and false solution that would violate their rights.

Governance Challenges and Unilateral Deployment Risks

By their very nature, SRM technologies cannot be tested effectively for their impact on the global climate other than through deployment. Because of the time frame and complexity they demand there is no precedent in human history to give comfort that deployment of these technologies could ever be effectively governed. The risk of unilateral deployment and weaponization is real.

International Response

Moratorium

Along with other forms of geoengineering, SRM has been under a de facto moratorium through the Convention on Biological Diversity since 2010, and marine geoengineering techniques, which include solar radiation modification and carbon removal approaches, are the subject of a drive for increased regulation under the London Convention / London Protocol, which is where the first geoengineering ban – on ocean fertilization – arose.

Global Leadership and the Call for Non-Use

Some private and state actors are actively researching and promoting solar geoengineering, and some outdoor experiments are going ahead, despite international restrictions, and sometimes without the consent or even knowledge of Indigenous Peoples, communities and governments on whose land and territories they are conducted.

States should acknowledge the risks posed by these most dystopian technologies by stepping up and committing to Non-Use of Solar Geoengineering. The 2023 decision of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment calling for a global SRM Non-Use governance mechanism shows important leadership as does the European Parliament’s explicit 2023 call for a non-use agreement at international level.

CIEL backs the call of hundreds of leading scientists from multi-disciplinary backgrounds and civil society movements around the world for states to commit to Non-Use of Solar Radiation Modification.

Find out more and support the Solar Geoengineering Non Use Agreement here.

Geoengineering