Scientists and advocates are alarmed that a global panel of experts has left the door open for research on geoengineering the planet’s climate—even as the panel called for a global moratorium on such efforts.
The Climate Overshoot Commission—an advisory group of senior former diplomats, policy experts, and scientists addressing global warming past the 1.5°C limit—recently published a report that “called on governments to phase out fossil fuels, put more resources into adapting to the impacts of extreme weather, and start using technologies to remove carbon dioxide, such as carbon capture and storage and the capture of carbon directly from the air,” reports the Guardian.
The panel also said governments “should adopt a moratorium on the deployment of solar radiation modification (SRM) and large-scale outdoor experiments that would carry risk of significant transboundary harm, while expanding research, and pursuing international governance dialogues” around SRM technologies.
SRM aims to reduce sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface and can involve techniques like deploying space mirrors or using fleets of planes to release stratospheric aerosols that scatter sunlight. Critics have warned that such disruptions to the atmosphere can alter rain patterns, causing droughts over some areas while flooding others.
The panel warned governments not to embark on these techniques, but also suggested SRM research must continue within guidelines that allow for testing in some jurisdictions that have “an effective environmental regulatory regime.”
But critics say even this slightest nod to SRM will divert necessary resources from more effective solutions, like reducing emissions and expanding renewable energy technologies.
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