Solar Geoengineering: EU must rule out solar radiation modification as a response to the climate crisis
Berlin, December 9, 2024 – Today, the EU Commission's Group of Chief Scientific Advisors published policy recommendations on solar geoengineering. The advice draws on an Expert Evidence Review Report that was also published today.
The Heinrich Boell Foundation is concerned that the recommendations presented today could lead to more openness to solar geoengineering in the EU. So far, the EU has taken a clear position and ruled out solar geoengineering as a response to the climate crisis. The Heinrich Boell Foundation calls on the EU Commission to swiftly implement this position and initiate Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement. There is growing political support for this, particularly in the Global South. Germany, too, has recently signaled openness to dialogue on non-use.
Linda Schneider, Senior Programme Officer International Climate and Energy Policy at the Heinrich Boell Foundation, commented on the scientific advice presented today as follows:
“The policy recommendations of the EU Commission's advisory group do not do justice to the grave and irresolvable risks of solar geoengineering clearly outlined in the report.
Instead of kickstarting an open-ended negotiation process that could end up enabling solar geoengineering deployment, the EU should work with African and Pacific governments Africa to establish a clear and robust international non-use agreement.
This is exactly what the European Parliament has already called for in 2023: It called on the European Commission and the EU member states to initiate a non-use agreement at the international level in accordance with the precautionary principle.
The EU should also not allow any field experiments on geoengineering, as recommended by the advisory group, and should certainly not fund geoengineering research with public funds. Further research will never be able to resolve the inherent, incalculable risks of such a planetary-scale experiment. We know enough about these technologies to be sure that their use would only cause more climate chaos. Their development should be stopped immediately.“
Note to editors:
The European Commission has tasked the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to develop scientific advice on risks and opportunities as well as regulatory options for solar geoengineering.
Geoengineering refers to large-scale technological interventions in the climate system and global ecosystems on land and in the oceans to suppress some of the effects and symptoms of the climate crisis. These include both technological approaches that reflect incoming sunlight back into space on a large scale (so-called solar geoengineering) and those that remove CO2 from the atmosphere on a large scale (so-called carbon dioxide removal, CDR). All these approaches are speculative and untested at this stage, and none of them address the causes of the climate crisis.
Due to the serious risks of solar geoengineering and in accordance with the precautionary principle, the European Parliament, in its resolution on COP28, called on the EU Commission and EU member states to initiate a non-use agreement at the international level (paragraph 92). Furthermore, research in the field of marine geoengineering is restricted by the regulatory regime of the London Convention/London Protocol.
Solar geoengineering is already subject to a de facto moratorium under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UN CBD), which was adopted in 2010 and reaffirmed in 2016 and, most recently, at COP16 in Colombia. EU member states are bound by this decision as parties to the UN CBD. Solar geoengineering also violates a number of principles and obligations under international law, including human rights obligations.
Press Contact
Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
Nicole Sagener
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