Until ago, talking about geoyngeniery was like doing science fiction. A few ideas released here and there, some more or less daring experiments and proposals. At least that is the sensation that Corain of the square has, a member of “Geoengineering Monitor”, an initiative that offers updated information about these experiments and is born from the collaboration of entities such as the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany. However, things are changing at great speed. A few days ago, The United Kingdom announced an investment of more than 50 million pounds for solar radiation modification projects (SRM)the most controversial and experimental group of all geoingenier. «It is a government support that will give wings to experimentation with the weather. However, although the United Kingdom is the first country to officially support experimentation, many others have long supported them with favorable regulations, such as the US, ”he says.
He Aria project, created by a law of Parliament and sponsored by the country’s department of science, innovation and technology wants to release aerosols to the stratosphere so that they reflect sunlight and the planet cools. They say that it is a small -scale experiment, that they will rigorously control it and that it will allow to evaluate the potential of geoyngenier to fight climate change. Precisely about this potential, the English scientific community discusses, divided by those who consider that some effects of climate change could be limited with a “judicious deployment of solar geoingenier” and those who throw from simile to consider that it is like taking aspirin to combat cancer.
As theory, geo -protein could be there, but public projects such as these pose the need for An international governance of the atmosphere. At least this is believed by the UN that already in 2023, given the increase in geo -en -proposed proposals worldwide, published “One Atmosphere”, an analysis in which some of the problems that these little tested techniques can cause on the planet and that range from modifying the rains to cause unfortunate cooling by areas or damage the photosynthesis of the plants. «Scientists and companies are accelerating its implementation, empirical research and experimentation is being carried out and discussing technologies and plans at the highest level, without fully understanding its implications. This contradicts the precautionary principle, which must be applied in the modification of the atmosphere, ”says the entity.
The main argument of organizations such as Corain of the Plaza are in that line: “All these experiments speak at most compensation but never to reduce them.” Since Geengineering Monitor they have counted more thousand open -up geo -en -geengineriness experiments, “some like those that have to do with increasing the CO2 absorption capacity of the ocean have multiplied by four. In these projects, buoys with algae and nutrients are launched in areas close to the thing that will then be launched to the bottom of the ocean in theory to store the captured CO2 there. Projects are increasing from California to Brazil and Southeast Asia, ”he says of the square. In addition, the spokeswoman recalls that “many of the projects are developed by private companies, much startups, without regulation and with an idea of selling their initiatives in carbon markets. Also in many cases, he says, without governments being aware that they are being carried out. It happened, remember, «Last year in Alameda (California) with a cloud bleaching project that a group of researchers from the University of Washington was going to carry out. The City Council suspended it And he claimed that he learned from the press, when the study began to attract the interest of the media.
Something similar happened in Mexico, in 2023. The State prohibited any type of geoingenier experiment in its territory when it learned that the private company Make Sunset wanted to sell his services and perform experiments on Mexican soil. The startup, offers its customers “cooling certificates” to compensate for their emissions by launching the stratosphere, about 20 km high, balloons with some grams of reflective particles. Once these particles have been released, of sulfur dioxide in this case, they “compete” to an annual CO2 ton for $ 9.95.
Mexico has become the first country in the world that has specifically forbidden experiments of this type in its borders. The control of geoyngeniery «is diluted in international treaties such as the agreement on biological diversity or the London protocol that prohibits pouring substances from the ocean. Also at the regional level, the African ministerial conference on the environment has asked that no experiments of this type are done. And it is that many Global Northern companies finance projects in the south, ”he recalls from the square. Although it has not transcended much of the United Kingdom project, it is known that the studies begin now and that in a second moment, 2026, a public debate will be opened with other sectors.
Remove CO2
Geoingeniery experiments are divided into two large groups mainly: those that intend to reduce the incidence of the sun on the planet and cool it, and those that They want to reduce the concentration of CO2 already issued to the atmosphere. The UN considers that this last technology group may be necessary even after reaching zero net emissions, since “global warming will persist for decades or centuries due to the long permanence of CO2 in the atmosphere.” That is, these techniques are “better views and have public financing and support,” he affects the square. This includes Europe, especially from the objective of the Net Zero by 2050. «CO2 capture, transport and storage techniques emerged in the 70s To recover oil and gas in exploitation deposits but it was in early 2000 when you had to try to find technologies to broadcast less after the signing of the 97 Kyoto protocol when they charge interest. Then it was proposed to apply it to electric production with coal, what happens? That the development of renewables made it meaningless to invest because it is a face technology. In 2019 they begin to emerge again after the Paris Agreement. With the Green Pact, Europe decides to reduce its emissions to zero in 2050 but we know that approximately in all economies there are between 15 and 20% of difficult emissions that have to do with industrial processes such as cement processes or steel. The Commission estimates that there are between 400 and 450 million tons of this CO2 of difficult dejection in Europe. If your goal in 2050 was a reduction of 80%, then, hey, these emissions left them there and that’s it. But, as your goal is to leave them to zero (it is assumed that not compromising the industry), we must start promoting these capture, transport and storage technologies, because if not, we will not get zero, ”says Pedro Mora Peris, president of PTECO2 (Spanish technological platform of CO2).
Norway will open next year the first geological storage of CO2. They began to develop in 2015, recalls Pedro Mora. «They will take 10 years, but they will be the first. Denmark has two projects, Italy has one in Ravena and Greece has two others in research. Bulgaria and Romania also have some … United Kingdom. Spain has also requested one. They are all storage projects because it is the first step to take. No one is going to invest in transporting CO2 or capturing it if you don’t know where to transport it or what to use it ».