Exploring Climate Cooling Programme
The Exploring Climate Cooling Programme is a British scientific initiative focused on researching climate engineering technologies designed to mitigate global warming effects. The programme's primary objective involves investigating various methodologies for reducing Earth's surface temperature by limiting solar radiation to possibly slow climate change progression.[1][2]
by April 2025, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) and National Environment Research Council provided a total of £61 million in government funding to the climate engineering programme across multiple research projects.[1]
Initiative
[edit]Exploring Climate Cooling Programme director Professor Mark Symes expressed the opinion that the mounting risk of climate tipping points— such as the potential collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation or massive ice sheets— necessitates research into methods that could rapidly cool the planet. Programme leaders, after consulting with hundreds of researchers, claimed that the project was initiated due to the absence of empirical data from real-world physical experiments regarding climate change mitigation efforts, which laboratory simulations and computer models alone cannot provide.[1][2]
In late 2024, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) allocated £50 million toward a comprehensive research initiative that includes small-scale outdoor experiments.[3] Complementing this effort, the National Environment Research Council (NERC) committed an additional £11 million on April 3, 2025, to investigate potential impacts of solar geoengineering interventions. The dual funding resulted in the United Kingdom becoming among the largest funders of climate engineering science, at a time when United States contributions were predicted to decrease under the second Donald Trump presidential administration.[1][2][4]
The programme intended to test multiple approaches to solar radiation management (SRM). These include stratospheric aerosol injection, which involves introducing reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to bounce sunlight back into space; marine cloud brightening, involving spraying seawater to enhance cloud reflectivity; and cirrus cloud thinning, involving seeding ice nuclei into cirrus clouds to reduce their duration.[1][5]
The programme offered several measures to mitigate potential harm caused by the experiments, such as prohibition the release of toxic substances, publishing comprehensive environmental impact assessments prior to experiments, and consultation with community representatives in regions impacted by the experiments. Programme researchers expressed hope that the tested measures could be increased in scale in ten years, should the experiments show signs of success.[1][5]
Controversy
[edit]Critics, including several prominent climate researchers, characterized the solar radiation management experiments to be conducted by the programme as an ill-conceived approach that diverts attention from the essential task of reducing carbon emissions.[6] Senior researchers Michael Mann and Raymond Pierrehumbert characterized the efforts as a "dangerous distraction" from underlying sources of climate change, and akin to "taking aspirin for cancer".[1][7]
See also
[edit]External links
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g Carrington, Damian (2025-04-22). "UK scientists to launch outdoor geoengineering experiments". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- ^ a b c "Exploring Climate Cooling". www.aria.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2025-04-05. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- ^ Flavelle, Christopher; Gelles, David (2024-09-13). "U.K. to Fund 'Small-Scale' Outdoor Geoengineering Tests". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- ^ "Modelling the impact of solar radiation modification". www.ukri.org. 2025-04-03. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- ^ a b Wilson, Abby (2025-04-24). "Why UK scientists are trying to dim the Sun". The Week. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- ^ Harvey, Fiona (2023-09-14). "Experts call for global moratorium on efforts to geoengineer climate". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
- ^ Pierrehumbert, Raymond; Mann, Michael (2025-03-12). "The UK's gamble on solar geoengineering is like using aspirin for cancer". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
