Environmentalists reject geoengineering solution to climate change

Friends of the Earth Africa and Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) have called on African governments to reject all forms of geoengineering technology to protect local communities against the adverse effects of climate change.

Climate Justice Campaigner with ERA/FoEN and Friends of the Earth Africa, Maimoni MariereUbrei-Joe, who made the call at the COP28 conference, stated that climate geoengineering is one of the many false solutions that have been proposed to counter the path to a just energy transition.

Geoengineering refers to large-scale schemes for intervention in the earth’s oceans, soils and atmosphere, with the aim of providing a temporary reduction of the effects of climate change.

According to Ubrei-Joe, some of geoengineering techniques, such as Solar Radiation Management (SRM) seeks to alter the amount of sunlight reaching the earth’s surface and could lead to regional climate changes.

“This could result in shifts in precipitation patterns, temperature extremes, and changes in agricultural productivity, which could negatively impact local communities that rely on stable and predictable climate conditions for farming, water availability, and livelihoods. Modifying cloud patterns or introducing reflective particles into the atmosphere may have unintended consequences for local ecosystems. Changes in sunlight and temperature regimes could disrupt ecosystems, leading to shifts in species composition, altered migration patterns, and potential biodiversity loss.”

Ubrei-Joe further revealed that Carbon Dioxide Removal, which refers to a large-scale implementation of techniques such as afforestation or creating artificial forest, has the potential of displacing local communities and forcing them to encroach on indigenous territories, or disrupting traditional land uses and livelihoods.

She added: “Some CDR methods, like ocean fertilisation, may carry environmental risks. For instance, seeding the ocean with iron pellets to stimulate plankton blooms can alter marine ecosystems, affecting fish population and potentially disrupting local fishing industries or coastal communities dependent on marine resources”

Also, the Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, Chima Williams highlighted some of the human rights impact of geoengineering, explaining that Solar Radiation management techniques such as spraying sulphate into the stratosphere or modifying clouds, may have unintended infringement on the right to health and the right to water, while Carbon Dioxide Removal methods involving large-scale carbon capture in the atmosphere, also raises human rights concerns in relation to food, livelihood, land and indigenous rights.

He called for the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases, pointing out that it is the safest way to rescue the world from the negative impacts of climate change, which is the goal that every sector must pursue without compromise.