2 October, 2024
New York, USA
As New York Climate Week, UN Science Summit and UN General Assembly come to a close, climate justice civil society groups and networks, Indigenous Peoples, and academics are deeply concerned about the increasing push to embrace geoengineering technofixes as climate solutions.
Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America Director for ETC Group said, “We all agree we are in a serious climate crisis, but speculative geoengineering proposals that would mess with ocean chemistry, manipulate clouds to reflect back sunlight or add polluting industries to capture and store carbon all threaten to make the situation even worse. We people from the Global South suffer most from the climate crisis, but we did not create it: we need real carbon reductions, not new and risky technofixes that create new threats and dependency.”
The surge in geoengineering experiments signals a dangerous normalization of these interventions. However, New York Climate week also saw political leadership in opposing the dangers of Geoengineering. Mary Church, CIEL’s Geoegineering Campaign Manager said, “We welcome the growing commitment to Non-Use of Solar Geoengineering, as governments around the world identify the enormity of the geopolitical, environmental, and social risks inherent to these technologies. Impossible to test for their intended climate impact without large-scale deployment, these highly speculative technologies put billions of people’s human rights at risk while giving polluting industries a free pass.”
Big polluters continue to promote carbon markets as a way to offset emissions, while simultaneously supporting geoengineering projects as part of the same flawed approach. Controversial technologies such as Stratospheric Aerosol Injection are being explored, further highlighting the recklessness of these initiatives.
“Planetary scale speculative techno-fixes like Stratospheric Aerosol Injection would also likely concentrate power in the hands of a few major players. As harmful impacts of any potential future geoengineering deployment would likely hit those on the frontlines of the climate crisis worst, it’s not surprising that global South countries are taking the lead on resisting the normalization of these dangerous distractions,” added Mary Church.
Despite international agreements that restrict geoengineering, the pace and the push for experimentation is accelerating, despite The Convention on Biological Diversity having a de facto moratorium on geoengineering since 2010, while the London Protocol seeks to regulate marine geoengineering.
“Governments must step up and take responsibility by preventing dangerous geoengineering experiments, upholding international regulations, and protecting diverse ecosystems and the communities that rely on them. Real climate solutions like providing adequate climate finance, phasing out fossil fuels, and supporting gender-just and rights-based alternatives must take priority over untested and risky technologies,” said Coraina de la Plaza, Global Coordinator of Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance.
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Additional Resources
- Geoengineering 101
- Home! Alliance Statement On Marine Geoengineering Experiments
- Press Release: Geoengineering: A Dangerous Climate Fix
About Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance
The Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance is a driving force in the fight against geoengineering, a growing threat of large-scale technological manipulation of the climate and biodiversity. We are an international civil society network of close to 200 organizations from over 45 different countries, from the Global South and the Global North. HOME was first launched as a global campaign in April 2010 at The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In October 2018 we released the HOME Manifesto denouncing geoengineering with a demand for an immediate stop to all open-air experiments. Follow us: X | LinkedIn | YouTube | Website
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