Spraying aerosols into the sky. Altering cloud reflectivity and colors. Dumping minerals into the ocean. These risky geoengineering methods seek to deliberately manipulate Earth’s systems in an attempt to mitigate the climate crisis.
As the climate crisis — and its impacts — accelerate, the search for solutions grows more desperate. Unfortunately, vested interests are seizing on that desperation to promote speculative geoengineering technologies as “quick technofixes” and delay proven solutions like phasing out fossil fuels and investing in renewable energy at scale.
Geoengineering technologies, such as solar and marine interventions, cannot be tested for their intended impact without real-world deployment — turning the Earth itself into a risky, potentially catastrophic experiment. What’s more, there is no precedent in human history to suggest that the deployment of these technologies could ever be governed fairly or safely.
International
At the Sixth United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-6) — the world’s highest decision-making body for the environment — CIEL engaged with climate-vulnerable States to stop a resolution from undermining an existing UN moratorium on solar geoengineering. In a major win for our planet, we stopped the global acceptance of these risky technologies.
We exposed lobbying efforts by geoengineering proponents at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), organized a briefing for delegates at COP28, and warned of the risk of its annual “Oceans Dialogue” becoming an entry point for marine geoengineering.
Local
This year, in St. Ives Bay, local residents stopped the startup Planetary Technologies from testing marine geoengineering technologies in one of the UK’s most beautiful coastal environments. CIEL helped to amplify the community’s resistance and to connect community leaders with international forums to raise their case and with funders to help sustain their fight.
In San Francisco, CIEL and partners quickly created a rapid and coordinated response to halt a proposed marine cloud brightening experiment, helping to secure a unanimous rejection by the local city council.
Harvard’s flagship SCoPEx solar radiation modification geoengineering experiment was canceled in April, following years of Indigenous-led resistance supported by CIEL.
Through legal arguments, communications campaigns, and policy advocacy, CIEL is changing the narrative and educating decision-makers about the dangers of geoengineering. Real solutions to the climate crisis demand all of our time and resources, and we cannot waste them on dangerous distractions.