{"id":178177,"date":"2025-12-11T01:22:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T01:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/178177\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T01:22:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T01:22:16","slug":"the-guardian-view-on-solar-geoengineering-africa-has-a-point-about-this-risky-technology-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/178177\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian view on solar geoengineering: Africa has a point about this risky technology | Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is fitting that this week\u2019s UN environment talks<\/a> are in Nairobi, with Africa shaping the global climate conversation. The continent\u2019s diplomats are dealing with the vexed question of whether it is wise to try to cool the planet by dimming the sun\u2019s rays. While not on the formal summit agenda, on the sidelines they are arguing<\/a> that it\u2019s time to stop promoting solar geoengineering technology as a solution to global heating. It\u2019s hard to disagree.<\/p>\n

African nations have acted because they don\u2019t want their continent to become a test bed<\/a> for unproven schemes to spray particles into the high atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from Earth for a small, uncertain cooling gain. They point to environmental, ethical and geopolitical risks<\/a>. That\u2019s why the continent is pushing for a global \u201cnon-use<\/a>\u201d agreement that would rule out public funding, outdoor experiments, patenting and official promotion of these technologies.<\/p>\n

The reason for a moratorium is obvious: solar geoengineering doesn\u2019t cut greenhouse-gas emissions. The potential side-effects include altered rainfall patterns and the consequential pressure on food systems. Then there is the risk of a sharp temperature spike if the interventions were ever halted \u2013 the so-called termination shock<\/a>. African nations<\/a>\u2019 opposition was such that they forced the withdrawal of a Swiss-backed <\/a>resolution on solar radiation modification at last year\u2019s UN talks.<\/p>\n

Yet an industry is being built on the idea that someone can take charge of the global thermostat. A\u00a0US\u2013Israeli firm<\/a> is developing a spraying system for future \u201ccooling services\u201d to offer to governments. Other nations are pushing back. Mexico banned<\/a> solar geoengineering experiments in 2023, after an unauthorised trial over its territory by a US startup.<\/p>\n

Academics have already warned<\/a> that the UK became the first \u201cmajor government\u201d to significantly fund solar radiation modification (SRM) through its Advanced Research and Invention Agency<\/a> (Aria). It is now backing scientists to research \u201cclimate cooling\u2019\u201d hardware and small-scale field tests. Other scientists describe the move as naive, poorly governed and scientifically incapable of proving SRM safe. Ministers ought to pull back.<\/p>\n

Research programmes have politics. Hardware and careers get built. Risky tech acquires well-funded backers. The actions of the US, the world\u2019s largest producer of oil<\/a> and gas<\/a>, should be studied. The Trump administration has made \u201cAmerican energy dominance<\/a>\u201d the core of its economic strategy. Solar geoengineering offers a way to manage temperature risk without loosening the carbon economy\u2019s grip. Controlling both the world\u2019s energy supply and the global thermostat has obvious appeal to the White House \u2013 and its billionaire backers.<\/p>\n

African governments\u2019 call<\/a> for a non-use agreement for solar geoengineering \u2013 echoing the precedents of landmine and chemical weapons bans<\/a> \u2013 is a recognition that some technologies shift power\u00a0so sharply that they create unmanageable risks. A line has to be drawn. The precautionary principle is used with other novel technologies. Why not here? The point is clearly that this power can\u2019t be left to a few.<\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s call should be taken seriously. None of this weakens climate policy. It would instead focus minds on measures that address the climate emergency: cutting fossil fuel use, investing in renewables \u2013 and paying for adaptation<\/a> where damage is already baked in.<\/p>\n

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is fitting that this week\u2019s UN environment talks are in Nairobi, with Africa shaping the global climate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-178177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}