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Andrew --
The geoengineering clique was busy over the summer. As new pressure
from fossil fuel companies and the governments who support them once
again make the case for geoengineering, here's a
recap.
SCoPEx is a Trojan Horse for Normalizing
Geoengineering
 SCoPEx, writes Silvia Ribeiro of ETC
Group, is an obscure acronym that names a dangerous political
maneuver. The project could set “a new and dangerous precedent for the
unilateral implementation of geoengineering technologies by
billionaires and vested interests.”
“Indeed, as the Center for
International Environmental Law and the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s
recent report, Fuel to
Fire, points out,
fossil-fuel companies have been investing in geoengineering for
decades. For Big Oil, the promise of a technological
get-out-of-jail-free card is an ideal pretext for continuing their
highly profitable, destructive activities.”
» A Geoengineering Trojan Horse
Enough with the False Climate Solutions!
Friends of the Earth International
had some strong words for the governments of industrialized countries.
“Unwilling to stand up to those who are destroying our planet,” writes
chair Karin Nansen, “political leaders have latched onto technological
solutions, including geoengineering approaches that promise to suck
already-emitted carbon out of the atmosphere.”
» Who Benefits from False Climate
Solutions?
Open letter to SCoPEx
In an effort to gain social license
for what would be precedent-setting geoengineering experiments, the
Harvard-based leaders of SCoPEx recruited several advisors. Shortly
after the announcement, 40 civil society groups from five continents
sent the committee, all of whom are US-based, a letter calling out the
hand-picked advisors for undermining democratic, public participation
and undermining international efforts at precaution, governance and
Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
“As those newly recruited to
provide SCoPEx with legitimacy, you face a stark decision. Your
current role legitimizes a project that furthers the interests of
climate disrupting forces, such as the fossil fuels industry. We urge
you to break your complicity with this path, and to withdraw your
participation from the SCoPEx Advisory Committee.” –From the
letter
» Open Letter to Scopex Advisory
Committee
Direct Air Capture is expensive, wasteful, and well-funded
(and other updates)
 In July, we focused in on Direct Air Capture. Even if it achieves the ambitiously low
target prices for sucking carbon out of the air, the variety of
techniques being developed use massive amounts of energy.
Climeworks, for example, aims to
capture 1% of the global annual CO2 emissions by 2025. The catch?
Doing so would require the annual amount of electricity as three
quarters of the 500 million people who live in the EU-28.
And what happens when the carbon is
captured? The most profitable use currently anticipated is the
production of synthetic fuels, which would put carbon right back into
the atmosphere – where it would need to be expensively and
energy-intensively captured again.
Antarctica as sacrifice zone?
 The latest thing to be put on the
chopping block for the sake of continuing to burn fossil fuels is…
Antarctica? Some otherwise esteemed researchers from the Potsdam
Institute for Climate Impact Research put forward a proposal to
prevent sea level rise by creating trillions of tonnes of artificial
snow and shooting them onto two west Antarctic glaciers.
When we critiqued his proposal, co-author Anders Levermann had this blunt
response:
The global media coverage that
resulted from the non-proposal conveyed a different impression, but
hopefully they will not make the mistake of normalizing geoengineering
twice.
Ice on Fire
 Leonardo DiCaprio has typically been
a climate ally. The foundation that bears his name concluded the
following in April of this year:
There
is only one explanation for why investors and fossil fuel companies
continue to pour money into [carbon capture] – to keep the ailing
fossil fuel industry alive, despite the fact that renewable energy is
now cheaper and more reliable.
However, a different crowd appears
to be behind Ice on
Fire, the visually
stunning DiCaprio-produced documentary that unfortunately promotes several false
solutions, including forms
of geoengineering.
Drax Burns the Credibility of Carbon Capture… along with
Wood Pellets and Coal
 Fans of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe might be momentarily confused, because here on earth,
Drax is not a blue guy with muscles for brains. But the “Drax the
Destroyer” monicker would seem to fit: the company is the world’s
largest wood burner and at 17 million tonnes annually, the largest
emitter of carbon in the United Kingdom.
Onto that mess, Drax has been using
carbon capture to apply a thin veneer of climate friendliness. It’s
also eyeing bigger prizes: the deeply flawed concept of burning trees
and growing new ones as a way to suck carbon out of the atmosphere
(BECCS). All while receiving millions in subsidies from the UK
government.
» Policymakers
Shouldn’t Trust Drax’s Bizarre Tree-burning Climate
Solution
Tracking Geoengineering Projects
 Our May update tracked a handful of carbon capture
projects and proposed solar geoengineering experiments, including the
entry of venture capitalists into the carbon capture space. In
August, we continued tracking several projects, including the
attempted revival of carbon capture infrastructure in Rotterdam, and a
cloud seeding project in India.
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