Submitted by Laura Dunn on
Photo Credit: Joe Ting
March 18, 2024 – Opposed by ETC Group since its inception in 2015, the SCoPEx project, which was Harvard’s flagship solar geoengineering experiment has closed down.
The experiment aimed to develop and conduct open-air tests of solar geoengineering technologies used in Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, which involves partially blocking the sun and masking heating caused by greenhouse gasses.
Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group’s Latin America Director and geoengineering lead issued this statement:
“The cancellation of the SCoPEx project is a victory for civil society and Indigenous peoples organizations who have been resisting solar geoengineering projects. Stopping open-air experiments is crucial now that several countries like the US, Israel, Canada, and the United Kingdom have announced plans to advance solar geoengineering research.”
“While solar geoengineering researchers claim that research is separate from deployment, rogue for-profit companies like Make Sunsets, have admitted that their illegal open-air experiments in Mexico were based on research by David Keith, the creator of the SCoPEx project. The experiment led to Mexico banning open-air experiments.”
“It is clear that the real impact of solar geoengineering experiments is to advance the technology towards deployment. The results of these experiments cannot reveal the true impacts solar geoengineering might have on the climate, but they do feed into a narrative that this technology could be used in the future, which provides an alibi for the most polluting countries and actors to continue with business as usual.”
“Solar geoengineering entails serious adverse impacts for communities, nature, biodiversity, health, food security and even on national security and the geopolitical balance. There are ample social, political and environmental reasons not to allow any open-air experiments, as over 500 scientists have argued proposing an international Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement.”
Media Contact:
Laura Dunn +1 514 607 9979 laura [@] etcgroup.org
Read more:
Saami, Swedes and civil society stop solar geoengineering trial balloon
Stop the U.S. start-up testing solar geoengineering in Mexico
Why SRM experiments are a bad idea