UK government ARIA is actively legitimising geoengineering
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01389-1
Controversial geoengineering projects to test Earth-cooling tech funded by UK agency.
Nature – The Advanced Research and Invention Agency is investing £57 million to study climate-manipulating technologies, but says it is taking a cautious approach.
This article shows the UK quietly stepping into a leadership role in real-world geoengineering experiments – raising concerns about democratic oversight, and poorly understood risks.
The UK-specific bottom line.
1) The UK government is actively legitimising geoengineering.
This isn’t abstract anymore—the programme is being driven by Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), a publicly funded body.
👉 The UK is no longer just studying geoengineering—it is helping normalise and institutionalise it using taxpayer money.
2) Britain is positioning itself as a global leader in climate intervention.
By funding real-world experiments (like cloud brightening and Arctic ice thickening), the UK is:
Moving ahead of many other countries.
Potentially setting international precedents.
👉 The UK could end up shaping global norms on deliberately altering the climate—without broad democratic debate.
3) Experiments may happen far from the UK—but under UK control.
Even if trials are conducted in places like the Arctic or oceans:
Decisions, funding, and leadership are still UK-based.
Impacts could be global or unevenly distributed.
👉 The UK are potentially making decisions that affect other countries’ climates, raising serious ethical and geopolitical concerns.
4) Public consent and oversight look thin.
ARIA is designed to operate with high autonomy and limited bureaucracy.
This means:
Limited parliamentary scrutiny.
Minimal public engagement on high-stakes climate interventions.
👉 A small, unelected body is being given significant influence over technologies that could affect the entire planet.
Our most recent newsletter (soon to be updated)
Good afternoon, friends
We hope this finds you all well and managing to rise to meet the ongoing challenges we face during these times. Since our last update, encouraging developments have been taking place, both here in Britain and in America. Our organising team at Britons for a Clean Atmosphere continue to meet with MPs on a regular basis. We present a case for the enactment of UK policy that includes regulatory mechanisms to prohibit and penalise polluting atmospheric interventions in order to protect human health and our environment. Through the process of meeting with them, we are beginning to filter out those MPs who are worth us working more closely with.
Lobbying your MP
Are you open to us contacting your MP on your behalf to ask them to meet us, to put our case forward for the introduction of Government policy banning chemical, electromagnetic and biological atmospheric pollution from the UK? Many of you have already done so, and we sincerely thank those who have; our list is growing every day. All we need from you is your permission to contact your MP and your full name and address, including postcode, in order for your MP to be able to identify you as their constituent. When we are successful in getting a meeting scheduled, we would ask that you allow us to lead the meeting as we have a well defined strategy that we need to stick to.
Geoengineering Petition
As mentioned in our recent update, on this coming Monday 23rd June, our member, Antoinette Taylor’s petition will be debated in parliament. If you haven’t already signed and shared the petition, please do: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/701963. Also, if you haven’t already, please contact your MP and tell them that you want them to attend the debate. The debate will commence at 4.30pm. We’re not sure yet whether or not comments will be open, but if they are, it would be wonderful if as many as possible joined the online discussion in the comments section and offered your views https://whatson.parliament.uk/event/cal52172
The following points would be particularly important to make.
Equally, these are some salient points here that you could put to your MP in a letter or an email:
- Government claim that they are not deploying geoengineering and have no plans to do so. They are, however, supporting geoengineering ‘research,’ but there is really no meaningful distinction between deployment and ‘research,’ it is all intentional pollution that we don’t consent to, and it all needs to be stopped.
- Basic principles of research ethics need to apply – i.e. consent. Experiments on the atmosphere upon which we all depend do not uphold the right to enter research freely (voluntarily) with full information about what it means to take part, nor does it uphold the researcher’s ethical duty to obtain consent before they undertake the research.
- If it is true that the government are not planning to use solar radiation management, why are we seeing articles like this in the MSM? https://therepublicansvoice.com/world/experiments-to-dim-the-sun-will-be-approved-within-weeks/
- Government were advised in 2010 (House of Commons Science & Technology Committee) that there is a policy gap that allows for an unacceptable lack of transparency, accountability & protection, and here we are in 2025, no further forwards. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/221/22102.htm
- Just last year, COP16 urged caution on geoengineering: https://cbd-alliance.org/en/2024/cop16-opportunity-reinforce-precaution-geoengineering
- An international moratorium, signed in 2010 by 193 countries, including UK, is still in place: https://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/publication/pdf_file/ETCMoratorium_note101110.pdf
- Despite claims that government are not planning to deploy solar radiation managment, this took place over two years ago: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/03/01/1069283/researchers-launched-a-solar-geoengineering-test-flight-in-the-uk-last-fall
- 60+ senior climate scientists and governance scholars from around the world launched a global initiative calling for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering. More than five hundred scholars now support the call for a Non-Use Agreement: https://www.solargeoeng.org/non-use-agreement/
Progress continues in America
In America, prohibitive legislation has now been introduced in 34 states 🥳
Last month, Jolie gave an excellent presentation to Pensylvania Senator, Doug Mastriano. In his words, “the Constitution of Pennsylvania says that we have a right to clean air, clean land, and clean water. It is time to get SB508 passed! It is a bill that has teeth in it! Also, this Friday at 12:30 PM, I will be holding a roundtable with expert Jolie Diane.” For those of you on Facebook, you can view the presentation. It’s worth forwarding past the first 15 mins or so when technical difficulties interrupted things. https://www.facebook.com/SenatorDougMastriano/videos/a-caller-wanted-to-talk-about-solar-radiation-modification-during-my-tele-town-h/1421812812279616/
Radiation Tracker
As some of you will be aware, Jolie has created the Zero5G World-Wide Radiation Tracker Map. For those of you taking meter readings, please head over and input your data here https://zero5g.com/world-radiation-tracker-map/. Your evidence is very important. Please bear in mind that we have a good quality amateur meter available for loan for anyone who can give some time to collecting readings. Just email if you would like to borrow it.
Open Meetings
Our open meetings are not as frequent as they were before we got so busy with our lobbying campaign, but we still periodically open up our meetings to the wider membership, probably around every 6-8 weeks at present. If you would like an invite to the next one, please get in touch and let us know.
Meanwhile, if you need to get in touch about anything, please feel free to email in.
Best wishes,
Deborah
Co-Founder
Britons for a Clean Atmosphere