24 June 2025

Bonn, Germany

As the UN climate talks SB62 in Bonn continue, civil society, Indigenous Peoples and climate justice groups are raising concerns about risky and speculative geoengineering technofixes that offer false promises and dangerous distractions in the guise of climate action. 

Kwami Kpondzo, Global Forest Coalition and Co-coordinator HOME Alliance Africa Working Group said, “Geoengineering is not a solution – it’s a smokescreen that delays the urgent emissions cuts we need. If business as usual is continued – polluters emitting CO2 and pushing distraction solutions such solar, land based and marine geoengineering to deal with the carbon, the climate crisis will not stop. Stop geoengineering now!,”

Geoengineering is increasingly being portrayed as a solution to climate change, with the Global South – and Africa in particular – being targeted as a testing ground by actors that have vested interests. This reflects a deeply colonial idea: powerful actors from the Global North, responsible for the bulk of historical emissions, are now pushing risky and unproven geoengineering schemes onto regions least responsible for the climate crisis.

Dr. Mfoniso Xael, Health of Mother Earth Foundation said, “Geoengineering is climate colonialism, plain and simple. The idea of turning Africa into a laboratory for dangerous, unproven technologies like solar radiation manipulation is outrageous and insulting. We did not create this crisis, yet we’re being treated as expendable. Carbon markets and offsets are nothing but greenwashed camouflage that allows polluters to keep polluting while exploiting our land and people. Carbon markets, if not stopped, will serve as a gateway for Geoengineering. Africa is not your experiment, not your carbon sink, and not for sale. Real climate action means justice, not technofixes. We demand bold, people-first, people-centered solutions driven by African communities, not more exploitation in disguise.”

Many of these schemes are tied to carbon markets, a key driver of geoengineering proposals, despite overwhelming evidence that these markets fail to deliver real emissions reductions and are often linked to land grabs, human rights abuses, and false climate accounting. 

Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network added, “Geoengineering experiments on Indigenous Peoples and our lands and territories, in the name of scientific research reminds me of Social Darwinism used to justify social equalities, including imperialism, racism, and eugenics. Article 6 carbon market regimes open the door to geoengineering with fake technologies and the financialization and privatization of nature. The answer to climate change is to keep fossil fuels in the ground and in UN climate negotiations ensure the distinct legal, political, inherent, and collective rights of Indigenous Peoples is fully recognized.” 

There has been a growing list of failed or halted geoengineering projects worldwide, rooted in people’s resistance, from the shutdown of geoengineering projects in St. Ives Bay, the Arctic Ice Project, the Alameda marine cloud brightening project, and the Harvard backed SCoPEx project, to the shutdown of the Running Tide company. It is clear that geoengineering schemes,technofixes from Solar Radiation Manipulation (SRM) to Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), pose grave risks to ecosystems and violate the rights of peoples and communities. “We will continue to resist geoengineering inside and outside the UN space, and reminding governments that our planet is not a laboratory but a shared HOME that we all must protect through proven and just sustainable solutions and not by experimenting with risky and unproven geoengineering schemes,” said Coraina de la Plaza, Coordinator, Hands Off Mother Earth Alliance.

Civil Society groups are calling for real, proven solutions to the climate crisis—such as a just transition away from fossil fuels and support for climate initiatives that are community-led, centering Indigenous knowledge, and tackle the root causes of the crisis. 

Dylan Hamilton, Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth added, “There is no future that includes fossil fuel expansion – we need real, complete emissions reductions at the source. Geoengineering is a dangerous distraction being used to delay real climate action, all so corporations can continue business-as-usual. Young people see through false solutions, and we won’t stand for anything less than climate justice.”

As governments prepare for COP30, civil society from across the globe is calling for an end to geoengineering experiments and the establishment of a Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement. They are also demanding that governments affirm and respect existing governance commitments such as the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) decision last year to reinforce the precautionary approach and reaffirm the existing de facto global moratorium on geoengineering.

Additional Resources

1. Link to press conference
2. Press conference photo and video drive
3. Civil society action at UN SB62 on Carbon Markets
4. Geoengineering Projects Tracker
5. Africa is Not A Laboratory
6. On World Oceans Day Civil Society Urges Governments to Protect Oceans From Geoengineering Threats
7. A Big Win As UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP16 Reaffirms Geoengineering is a Risk

About Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance

The Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance is a driving force in the fight against the growing threat of large-scale technological manipulation of the climate and biodiversity: geoengineering. 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. 

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