The controversial technology aims to reflect sunlight back into space in a bid to combat climate change
Britain is set to approve funding of up to £50million for outdoor experiments to dim sunlight(Image: Kevin Carter)
Brits are used to hearing about the latest ways to combat climate change, but many will not have considered dimming the sun – or indeed knew if that was even possible. Now, UK scientists are about to do just that.
The government is set to give the green light for experts to figure out whether the big yellow ball in the sky can be dialled down a few notches in an effort to tackle global warming and all its potentially disastrous consequences.
Within weeks, big wigs could give the go-ahead for experiments and analyses costing £50 million to see if the sun can be dimmed down. However, the practices could result in a potentially catastrophic fallout of its own.
The methods could involve spraying aerosolised particles high into the stratosphere to deflect a small fraction of the sun’s energy away from the Earth, according to LBC. This may cool the planet quite cheaply, studies suggest.
Another method is brightening clouds to reflect sunshine. However, the investigations come with a warning – weather patterns could be majorly disrupted and even divert rain from areas that are vital for food production.
The National Arctic Scientific Research Expedition team identified the decreasing sea ice due to global climate change through sampling, evaluation, observation, and unmanned aerial vehicles(Image: Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The experiments will be funded by the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, or Aria. The experiment, in total, has been given £800 million of taxpayers’ money to use over the next four years, reports The Independent.
Professor Symes said the project would not use toxic substances and that an environmental impact assessment would be published before any outdoor experiments and that communities in the area would be consulted.
Geo-engineering could reduce the drive to stop burning fossil fuels, the root cause of climate change, some scientists say.
Professor Symes said: “We will be announcing who we have given funding to in a few weeks and when we do so, we will be making clear when any outdoor experiments might be taking place.
“One of the missing pieces in this debate was physical data from the real world. Models can only tell us so much.
Britain is set to approve £50m Sun-dimming experiments in a bid to prevent climate change(Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
“Everything we do is going to be safe by design. We’re absolutely committed to responsible research, including responsible outdoor research.
“We have strong requirements around the length of time experiments can run for and their reversibility and we won’t be funding the release of any toxic substances to the environment.”
Symes added that while the solution is to stop the burning of fossil fuels and expel excess greenhouse gases, the project will “buy time to decarbonise” because the latter may not happen fast enough to stop these tipping points.
It comes as Scotland’s carbon footprint rocketed by almost 15 per cent in 2021 as the nation bounced back from Covid lockdown to hit its highest level since 2015, official stats reveal.
Greenhouse gas emissions in the country soared from 51.6million tons carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2020 to 59.2million tons – an increase of 14.6 per cent and the biggest rise since records began 23 years ago.
If successful, experts believe the sun dimming methods could be scaled up and carried out within 10 years.
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