A trailblazing experiment to launch a balloon into the stratosphere from Sweden for a solar geoengineering test has been suspended and delayed until 2022 to give more time for engagement with the Swedish public.
The decision by an independent advisory committee is a major setback to the Harvard University experiment, . The project would be the first to intentionally inject particles into the stratosphere to explore the technology鈥檚 feasibility for cooling Earth and buying time for governments to act on climate change.
In a double whammy for the scheme鈥檚 proponents, the Swedish space agency also took the independent decision to scrap a test flight planned for June. 鈥淭he scientific community is divided regarding geoengineering,鈥� the agency . A spokesperson for the agency told New 杏吧原创 that the flight had been cancelled after consulting not just with SCoPEx鈥檚 advisory committee but with experts in Sweden.
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Frank Keutsch at Harvard University, who leads SCoPEx, said in a statement that he 鈥渇ully supports鈥� the committee鈥檚 decision and would 鈥渓isten closely鈥� to what the public had to say.
Today鈥檚 rejection of the test flight comes just five days after the US National Academy of Sciences gave its backing to such experiments. The group also called on the US government to launch a $100 million research programme into solar geoengineering because of slow action on climate change.
Keutsch has previously echoed that view, telling New 杏吧原创 鈥渨e really need to do the research鈥� on solar geoengineering because emissions are being curbed too slowly.
Research into this method of solar geoengineering, known as stratospheric aerosol injection, is controversial, because of concerns that it could lead to large-scale deployment of the technology, potentially negatively affecting weather in some parts of the world. The SCoPEx advisory committee said that the project shouldn鈥檛 go ahead before more 鈥渟ocietal engagement鈥� in Sweden, pushing an initial test flight back to 2022.
鈥淚t is clear from the feedback that there is a broadly shared commitment to research that can help prevent climate change from worsening. It is also clear that there is a lack of consensus about research related to geoengineering,鈥� the committee .
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