Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, which chemicals will be used in the Advanced Research and Invention Agency's geoengineering program.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
ARIA is an independent research body and they are conducting cautious, controlled research aimed at improving understanding of its Climate Cooling Programme’s risks and impacts. This will produce important information for decisions on climate cooling approaches around the world.
The government supports ARIA’s mission to fund transformational research programmes with long-term benefits. A select number of controlled, small-scale projects will explore spraying seawater as a potential way to enhance cloud reflectivity. Another project involves a study on how milligram quantities of mineral dusts age in the stratosphere. The project has specified that none of these materials will be released into the atmosphere in this experiment, and all the materials will be returned to the ground for recovery and analysis by scientists.
Details of all of ARIA’s funded projects within its ‘Climate Cooling Programme’ can be found on their website