The British government plans to approve experiments that seek ways to dim sunlight and deflect it away from the Earth in an effort to tackle so-called “runaway climate change.”
The new plan comes with a host of possible climate control options pending government approval, The Telegraph reported.
These options include injecting aerosols into the atmosphere and brightening clouds to reflect sunlight back into space.
ARIA, the government’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency, has £50 million set aside for projects, which will be announced in the coming weeks.
Prof. Mark Symes, the program director for ARIA, confirmed there will be “small controlled outdoor experiments on particular approaches.”
“We will be announcing who we have given funding to in a few weeks and when we do so we will be making clear when any outdoor experiments might be taking place,” he said.
“One of the missing pieces in this debate was physical data from the real world. Models can only tell us so much,” he continued.
“Everything we do is going to be safe by design. We’re absolutely committed to responsible research, including responsible outdoor research.”
The professor added:
“We have strong requirements around the length of time experiments can run for and their reversibility, and we won’t be funding the release of any toxic substances to the environment.”
Geoengineering projects that seek to artificially alter the climate are not without criticism, with opponents warning they could have damaging knock-on effects.
Meanwhile, an Israeli–U.S. startup is developing a new form of “solar geoengineering” that will use “unique aerosol technology for temporarily cooling the planet.”
The startup, Stardust, formed in 2023, aims to develop “proprietary geoengineering technology that would help block sun rays from reaching the planet.”
The company wants private firms to drive the development and deployment of “technologies that experts say could have profound consequences for the planet” and seeks to “deliberately transform the atmosphere”—something “that has never been done.”
According to a report from Wired.com, if Stardust’s geoengineering technology goes live, “it will affect the whole world.”
“If a geoengineering project went awry, for example, it could contribute to air pollution and ozone loss, or have dramatic effects on weather patterns, such as disrupting monsoons in populous South and East Asia,” the outlet reported.
Stardust is now laying out plans to spray its proprietary aerosol particles “through a machine mounted on an aircraft” as it is currently “engineering the particle and a prototype of the aircraft mount, as well as developing a system for modeling and monitoring the climatic effects.”
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