Angle: “Sunlight blocking” research in developing countries, NGO new funding | Reuters

Oslo (8th Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Scientists in developing countries recently received new funding to study potentially dangerous ways to slow the pace of global warming. I put it in. The method is “solar geoengineering,” which involves artificially blocking sunlight by releasing reflective chemicals into the atmosphere, such as sulfur particles, similar to volcanic plumes. Trying to cool the earth. Also called “Solar radiation modification” (SRM).

The Degrees Initiative, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the United Kingdom, announced on the 8th that 15 developing countries, including Nigeria, Chile and India, would like to kickstart the so far lacking progress in solar geoengineering research. announced a new contribution of $900,000 (approximately ¥118 million) to researchers in this field in Japan.

The funds will be used to build computer models that analyze how solar geoengineering affects everything from rainfall to tropical cyclones, heatwaves and biodiversity. The Degrees Initiative also provided $900,000 in 2018 to projects in developing countries to understand risks such as worsening drought in South Africa.

Until now, research centers in developed countries such as Harvard University and Oxford University have played a leading role in research on the possibility of blocking sunlight.

Andy Parker, Founder and CEO of The Degrees Initiative, said, “Overall, the key is the redistribution of power in the SRM and the voice of the countries most affected in deciding whether or not to use it. It means strengthening the

“The level of (SRM) research around the world is shockingly low given the magnitude of the risks,” Parker said, adding that global funding for SRM research is likely in the tens of millions of dollars a year.

Promoting SRM as a means to combat climate change could give fossil fuel companies an excuse to do nothing, and could disrupt weather patterns and further impoverish the most vulnerable countries, he said. has been criticized.

“It’s so controversial. I can offer 100 things the world can do[to put the brakes on climate change]but geoengineering,” said Chukwumerije Okereke, director of the Center for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekweme Federal University in Nigeria. will never enter it,” he said.

Okereke, who is also a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, said that SRM was not even mentioned in the recommendations for global warming countermeasures published last year by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. pointed out that it did not.

Proponents of SRM, meanwhile, say the technology was inspired by volcanic eruptions. For example, the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines cooled the earth’s temperature for more than a year due to the high-altitude plume.

The past eight years have been the warmest period in history, with global temperatures already rising about 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting the increase to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. To achieve , there is no doubt that we must find ways to limit global warming.

Still, Utrecht University professor Frank Bielmann denies that SRM is a distraction from the need for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The United States emits an average of 14.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per person per year, compared with just 1.8 tonnes in India, Biermann said. In other words, if the world as a whole were emitting as much as India, most Latin American countries and Africa, climate change wouldn’t be a major issue.

He argued that the focus should be on reducing emissions by developed countries when tackling climate change risks. “The question is who are we buying time for: humanity as a whole, the poor, the vulnerable, or the oil, gas and coal industries?” he asked.

Biermann said 390 scientists had signed a letter calling for a ban on the use of SRM and welcomed Mexico’s ban on unauthorized solar geoengineering experiments last month. The move prompted U.S. startup Make Sunsets to shelve plans to launch new balloons to release sulfur particles into the stratosphere.

However, researchers in developing countries have said that further research is needed to understand the effects and adverse effects of SRM, and that it is important for scientists in the southern hemisphere to catch up with SRM research, which has been focused on the northern hemisphere. .

Former World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Lamy said, “Even if there are obvious risks (to SRM), there are enormous risks to global warming. So to speak, risks are facing each other.” He warned that mankind would be forced to make a tough choice.

(Reporter Alister Doyle)