A US research non-profit called the Arctic Ice Project (AIP) is closing down its operations and has cancelled ongoing geoengineering experiments in the Arctic, citing environmental concerns and “potential risks to the Arctic food chain”.
The Silicon Valley-based organisation proposed the release of tiny silica particles over parts of the Arctic Ocean, which would in theory reflect sunlight from the surface and cool down melting ice.
Announcing the shutdown last week, AIP said test results – along with “skepticism towards geoengineering”, funding barriers and “resistance” to introducing new materials into the Arctic Ocean – had led it to end the project, which was conceived over a decade ago.
The proposed technique is one of several controversial methods aimed at slowing down global warming and its effects on the Earth. Broadly grouped under the term “geoengineering”, these emerging technologies have garnered growing attention in international policy discussions, with some countries like Switzerland proposing global regulation. Other countries like Mexico have placed cautionary bans on experiments.
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Climate and indigenous campaigners welcomed the shutdown of AIP’s experiments in Alaska and noted that indigenous communities in Alaska have long opposed the project’s activities over fears of collateral impacts.
“Our concerns about the reckless use of harmful materials were dismissed, yet we knew that the health of our ecosystems and the wisdom of our people must not be overlooked,” said Panganga Pungowiyi, a climate geoengineering organiser at the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN).
Ongoing experiments
More than 190 countries have signed a moratorium on new geoengineering experiments under the United Nations’ biodiversity convention, a decision that was reaffirmed at last year’s COP16 summit in Cali, Colombia.
However, dozens of new experiments have taken place in the last five years, according to German non-profit Geoengineering Monitor, including the use of methods that are currently covered by the international moratorium.
For example, Geoengineering Monitor recorded 27 ocean fertilisation experiments (harvesting plankton in the ocean to increase photosynthesis and capture CO2) and 17 solar radiation management experiments (spraying sulphur particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and cool down the planet).
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In 2024, US-based startup Make Sunsets drew fire because it sprayed sulphur particles into the air in Mexico without prior consent, leading the country to enact a precautionary ban on similar tests.
The startup has been selling “cooling credits” – a similar concept to carbon credits, where companies fund emissions-cutting projects to offset their climate impact – to finance experiments and has conducted at least seven more tests in several places across California.
The US, which is not a signatory to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), allows companies to engage in geoengineering tests under the Weather Modification Act of 1976, as long as they report them.
Aerial drone view of ice textures formed in the Svinafellsjokull glacier following global warming, Iceland, Polar Regions (Photo: Copyright: carloxalbertoxconti)
Arctic ice management
Despite AIP winding down its operations in the Arctic, other startups have ventured into the lesser-known group of methods known as Arctic ice management, which seek to halt melting ice through human interventions.
AIP aimed to use tiny particles of silicon dioxide, which it described as similar to “small, fine, white beach sand that floats”, to increase the reflectivity of sea ice and cool down the Arctic. Some others have pursued the same method.
US-based Bright Ice Initiative – which was also set up by AIP’s founder Leslie Field – has conducted experiments on glaciers in Iceland and plans new tests at the Chhota Shigri Glacier in the Indian Himalayas. A 2022 study published in the journal Earth’s Future suggested the particles might actually accelerate the loss of sea ice.
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Other companies have tried different approaches. UK-based startup Real Ice seeks to “refreeze” the Arctic by pumping seawater from below the ice to the surface during winter months to try and thicken ice cover. It aims to test the technique in Canada’s northern Nunavut region and eventually sell “cooling credits”.
Many indigenous organisations, meanwhile, have called for a halt to these experiments. “Nature is not a laboratory; it is a living entity we are in relationship with,” said the IEN’s Pungowiyi, cautioning against “other forms of geoengineering that threaten our sacred spaces”.
(Reporting by Sebastian Rodriguez; editing by Megan Rowling)
The post Arctic geoengineering experiment shuts down over environmental risks appeared first on Climate Home News.
Arctic geoengineering experiment shuts down over environmental risks
SYDNEY, Thursday 30 October 2026 — In response to reports that the Albanese government is set to introduce draft legislation this year that would seek to ban data centres in Australia’s suburbs, Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:
“These reports are a testament to the growing community opposition to these completely inappropriate AI factories that have sprung up across our suburbs, and Big Tech corporations should take heed — the data centre build-out must not happen without the endorsement of the Australian people.
“But the government can’t simply ship this problem out to regional Australia without addressing the fundamental issues with this extractive new industry.
“We’re already seeing a trend of AI data centre proposals moving to the regions, in areas that are more water-scarce, more environmentally sensitive, and next to sources of fracked and coal seam gas to support their massive BYO gas-fired power plans — a pattern we’ve seen play out in the United States.
“From the Beetaloo Basin in the NT to the Western Downs in Qld, we’re seeing a wave of AI data centre proposals that would see new gas fast-tracked to support their massive energy demand, and threaten to completely derail Australia’s energy transition.
“Just as suburban Australians are asking, “what for?”, regional communities like Berry Springs and Dalby do not want dirty data centres setting up shop with absolutely no benefit to their communities. Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on AI data centre developments until strict and enforceable safeguards are in place to protect our climate and our communities.”
-ENDS-
Media contact
Kate O’Callaghan on +61 406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
AI data centre ban in suburbs would not address fundamental issues: Greenpeace
In the thick of the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan in 2024, the UN climate talks were rattled by what can only be described as a major PR disaster. The BBC, Reuters and The Guardian all carried headlines, attributed to leading climate policy experts, that the COPs were “no longer fit for purpose”.
The articles outlined a series of reforms called for in an open letter signed by 22 eminent scientists and politicians, including a former UN secretary-general and previous UN climate chief, with a further 150 lending their support. The headlines shook confidence in the COP process, just as governments were wrestling over a new climate finance goal.
The Club of Rome – which handled the media relations for the letter – hurried to say that its “constructive, supportive ideas” had been “misinterpreted”. Negotiators kept calm(ish) and carried on, in the end landing the finance goal after some high-stakes drama on the final day.
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To my surprise, when I went back this week to read the letter again, I could not find the offending line about the COPs not being fit for purpose. The Club of Rome has yet to respond to my query about its disappearance.
Whatever happened to the wording, that sentiment has been widely shared. COPs have ballooned in size while the importance of their outcomes seems to have diminished since the 2015 Paris Agreement (with the exception of the 2023 COP in Dubai where countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems).
The same on the surface
Two years on from those painful headlines in Baku, has anything changed for the better? You might be forgiven for thinking not. Official decisions are still made by consensus rather than the majority voting some have called for to stop blockers.
Tens of thousands of officials, activists and business execs still scurry around the halls to an ever-growing list of side events, roundtables and dialogues, while deals still come down to rows, all-nighters and jargon-filled texts adopted to rounds of applause.
But it would not be true to say that COPs have completely failed to respond to the very real need to translate the words of the Paris Agreement into action in the outside world.
Global warming is projected to be around 1.3C lower this century than it would have been if the world had not committed to tackle the climate crisis under that accord. Developing countries have a valued space at COPs in which their voices have equal weight in decision-making, unlike in many other international fora. And most importantly, perhaps, there has been a subtle shift, tipping the balance away from negotiating towards doing.
Brazil branded last year’s summit in Belém as the “COP of Implementation”, corralling the sprawling Action Agenda into six axes. This was a bid to impose some structure on the mushrooming efforts between governments, UN agencies, cities, businesses and civil society to set targets and spur faster results on their pet issues, from methane emissions to health and adaptation in conflict zones. COP30 alone saw the launch of 120 “plans to accelerate solutions”.
COP30 roadmaps off the cuff
Meanwhile, as the formal negotiations drew to a close, it was clear that consensus decision-making was evolving into something a little more improvised.
With only around half of all countries on board with the idea of a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago announced his team would put one together over the coming year, along with another on how to meet a global goal to halt deforestation by 2030. Those roadmaps will be launched next week, presented and discussed at COP31, though it’s still unclear whether or how they’ll be incorporated into the formal negotiating agenda.
Some leading policy-makers don’t think that matters too much. Speaking to journalists before the Antalya summit, COP30 CEO Ana Toni and Dutch climate minister Stientje van Veldhoven said “coalitions of the willing” can move ahead without needing consensus from the COPs. This, they said, was evident this year at the first global conference on TAFF, co-chaired by van Veldhoven and attended by 60 countries.
“Consensus or no-consensus in the general COP doesn’t make a difference for the choices I have to make in my country to get my country to phase out fossil fuels,” said the Dutch minister. The Netherlands recently became one of the first to publish a national TAFF plan.
COP31 banks on flagship voluntary initiatives
This thinking has permeated the management and expected outcomes of this year’s COP too. Earlier this year, Türkiye, supported by international energy agencies, floated the idea of a voluntary goal to boost electrification to 35% of the world’s final energy consumption by 2035 – and this is now being touted as one of the main results to be expected from Antalya.
Türkiye is also championing a pledge on AI and climate, while co-host Australia is pushing to ease access to climate finance for least developed countries and small island states.
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None of these needs consensus. But with a political cover decision already in the works, as trailed by the COP presidents, they – and perhaps the fossil fuel roadmap – may find a home in the official text if language acceptable to most can be found, giving them them additional weight.
UNFCCC reform process in the shadows
Formal reform is underway too, if quietly. UN climate chief Simon Stiell is leading a review informed by ongoing consultations with a group of 15 well-respected climate policy experts, three of whom signed the open letter in 2024.
Among them is leading Swedish climate and sustainability scientist Johan Rockström who has strong ideas about how to make COPs function better, including a switch to majority voting. He told the same press briefing nothing stands in the way of this, because the rules of procedure for making decisions at COPs have never been formally agreed.
Still, to get away from the default setting of consensus would require agreement on a new system that may be impossible to achieve given the rise in bullying tactics by fossil fuel heavyweights.
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The deliberations with the high-level policy gurus, as reflected in a summary of June’s session in Bonn, largely echo what’s already happening organically, calling for stronger partnerships and accountability both in and between the Action Agenda and negotiations. It doesn’t mention voting.
A general overview of the reform exercise says that “improving and optimizing the [UN climate] process over the medium to long term… will be critical to fostering trust, enhancing collaboration, and catalyzing increased ambition”.
In the short term, don’t hold your breath for anything concrete on reform at COP31 but watch for signs in what ends up dominating the headlines from Türkiye.
The post Editor’s Desk: COP reform is happening quietly, behind the headlines appeared first on Climate Home News.
Editor’s Desk: COP reform is happening quietly, behind the headlines
With the COP31 climate summit in Turkey looming, all eyes are on China to see what the country will push for in the negotiations.
At COP30 last year, China helped to secure a “dialogue” on climate-related “unilateral trade measures”, as well as a two-year “work programme” concerning climate finance.
The nation also championed south-south cooperation throughout the conference and co-led a summit on methane, alongside Brazil and the UK.
In a recent press conference, China’s environment vice-minister Li Gao noted the need to “uphold multilateralism” and send a “clear political signal” that the global community is united around climate action.