Scientists are urging Britain and other nations to invest billions of pounds a year in geoengineering schemes to cool the planet, including brightening clouds with electric currents from drones and refreezing the Arctic by pumping seawater onto the ice.
The group, led by the government's former chief scientific adviser Sir David King, called for major funding to research ways to "geoengineer" the planet. Among the ideas are brightening clouds by delivering an electric current from drones and refreezing the Arctic by pumping seawater on top of the ice. Other proposals include putting tiny particles into the stratosphere to scatter sunlight back into space, mimicking the global cooling of a volcanic eruption.
Government funding and upcoming climate summit
The UK Government is already spending £67m exploring ways to address global warming after widespread heatwaves and drought this summer. Prime Minister Andy Burnham and ministers are preparing to attend Cop31, the UN climate conference, being held in Turkey next week.
Call for international investment
King, 87, emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, said Britain was "way ahead of the game" on such research and called on other countries to step up. He said Australia, France and Japan are among those that should collectively spend about £22.2bn a year, adding: "At the moment we are nowhere near that."
King called the need urgent, noting that Greenland is losing ice at about 30 million tonnes an hour, threatening coastal cities with rising sea levels. He also highlighted the recent deadly Himalayan disasters as a need to protect glaciers.
The UK Government has made clear that although it funded geo-engineering research, it does not support deployment.
