Global cooling startup raises $60M to test sun-reflecting technology - POLITICO

[Aria Mckenna]

I don't know if this already went around but I figured there would be a lot of interest from the group. .

Global cooling startup raises $60M to test sun-reflecting technology - POLITICO https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/24/global-cooling-startup-raises-60-million-dollars-to-test-sun-reflecting-technology-00620340

(Please excuse typos and talk to text! 😆 - Sacrificing email perfection to optimize productivity and health!)

Warmest Thanks For Everything You Do,
Aria McKenna
Brand: "Saving Planet Us"
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Writer, Producer, Climate Communicator
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Creator
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[PR CARTER]

I think one of the links was to this , also attracting capital

https://www.reflectorbital.com/

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From: "Aria Mckenna" <ar...@globalcoolingproductions.com>
To: "healthy-planet-action-coalition" <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>, "Healthy Climate Alliance" <healthy-clim...@googlegroups.com>, "Healthy Climate Initiative" <healthy-clima...@googlegroups.com>, "Planetary Restoration" <planetary-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2025 4:37:40 PM
Subject: [HPAC] Global cooling startup raises $60M to test sun-reflecting technology - POLITICO

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Director Climate Emergency Institute
IPCC expert reviewer
Co-author2018 Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival

[Dr. Soumitra Das]

My take, which I posted about this development on LinkedIn - 

The recent $60 million investment in Stardust, backed by Israeli venture capital, signals that the development of Solar Radiation Management (SRM) will now accelerate—and others will soon join the race. For-profit companies are entering a domain that could determine the fate of the planet, and much of this progress may unfold in stealth, beyond public scrutiny or multilateral oversight. The world faces a pivotal truth: the technology to cool the planet is coming, but governance is not. Rapid, transparent, and inclusive global governance must catch up—before commercial interests set the rules.

But governance without representation is hollow. The Global South, especially South Asia, must invest decisively in SRM research and development. The region’s food security, water cycles, and monsoon systems are acutely vulnerable to atmospheric manipulation, yet it remains a bystander in the science and policy shaping its future. Building indigenous SRM capacity is not optional—it is strategic. Without it, decisions will be made elsewhere, creating a new form of climate colonialism, where the South bears the consequences of technologies it neither designed nor controlled.

And the deeper question looms: Should the power to engineer Earth’s climate rest with profit-driven companies? Would humanity ever have trusted private firms to build and sell atomic bombs?

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Soumitra Das

Chairman and Executive Director, HCI USA

Chairman, HCI India

https://healthyclimateinitiative.org/

[H simmens]



The funding received by Stardust raises a host of important issues. 

From what I have read I’m not prepared to condemn the company at this point. 

Can we truly afford to wait how many more years or decades until a government or coalition of governments or the world community gives the go ahead to start the critical engineering and testing of potential atmospheric particles and delivery systems? 

Stardust is betting that it can produce particles that are safe and effective and superior to the sulfur based particles that are currently proposed. Their leadership and team seem to have extraordinary technical backgrounds and practical experience in developing highly advanced engineering. 

 So that if and when governments decide to seriously consider deployment they may have ready access to some of the tools and technology. 

What Stardust is doing is little different than what governments routinely do all the time with respect to contracting out the design and manufacturer of weapon systems and virtually every other form of technology  including nuclear weapons. 

The major difference in this case is that Stardust is getting a head start on what they anticipate will be a call by governments for the best minds to propose feasible systems to cool the planet. 

Absent government acquisition or licensing of the particle and systems IP that Stardust is developing it seems that they will go out of business with no purchaser of their product. So I see little danger of Stardust moving forward on their own as some kind of rogue private villainous entity, particularly as they are now in the public eye and will be closely scrutinized by advocates, opponents, and neutral observers for years to come. 

The most likely and probably feasible scenario would be for the world community or a coalition of governments to issue a tender soliciting proposals from corporations, universities or startups that have the ability to test, evaluate and perhaps construct systems to cool the planet. 

At that point let’s say in five or eight or 10 years Stardust would have to compete against other companies or maybe government labs to be selected. 

David Keith has indicated that he is extremely skeptical that they will be able to come up with a particle that will be superior to sulfur based particles in which case they will presumably either fold the company or go on to explore other technologies. 

I find it hard to believe however that some of the top minds in Israel and $75 million was being dedicated to this project unless their preliminary research and testing showed a high likelihood that they could develop a proprietary particle and delivery system superior to those that are currently proposed. 

I don’t see why a consortium of global South countries couldn’t for example  take the lead in working with Stardust and perhaps other private companies in a partnership to develop effective cooling modalities in the coming years. Or perhaps global south countries as well as global north countries will see what Stardust is doing and rouse themselves from inaction to develop their own advanced R&D. 

In any scenario it would be governments that have control - for better or worse- of how and whether cooling technologies are deployed. 

The reaction to Stardust may also result in serious efforts to finally finally develop an effective governance arrangement. 

I’m not suggesting that what Stardust is doing is optimal in an ideal world, but in the real world where not one government on the planet is actively promoting cooling - at least publicly - perhaps the work being done by Stardust and the controversy it will engender may help break the log jam. 

The world certainly doesn’t have the luxury of waiting until the perfect system falls into place as some NGO’s, academics and others seem to be advocating while 100s of academics and NGO’s are as adamant as ever that solar Geo engineering should not be used and severe restrictions should be placed upon its development. 

Unlike Make Sunsets which is little more than a publicity stunt and which engendered a fierce backlash Stardust is a serious deliberate well thought out approach to finally getting beyond the computer and model simulation stage of SAI, where it continues to be stuck for decades. 

I would urge us to withhold judgment until we see what their technology and systems are, how open they will be in releasing technical details and what their principles and conduct looks like in the coming years. 

It would be quite worthwhile in my view for a statement to be prepared that addresses Stardust and the possibility that it could advance action on restoring a safe climate. 

Herb

Herb Simmens
Author of A Climate Vocabulary of the Future

“A SciencePoem and an Inspiration.” Kim Stanley Robinson
@herbsimmens
HerbSimmens.com

On Oct 25, 2025, at 12:09 AM, Dr. Soumitra Das <mr.soum...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Ron Baiman]

Copied over from another thread!

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ron Baiman <rpba...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Oct 25, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Subject: Fwd: Baked Alaska
To: healthy-planet-action-coalition <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>

Dear Colleagues, 

See 2. copied below from Kaufman HeatMap AM Newsletter.

This is another report on the story that Aria recently posted. Also earlier reports of this company's initial fundraising were (as I recall) reported a while back in the Geoengineering Newsletter and/or the HPAC list. I have, of course, no idea if what they're doing is a significant breakthrough or will generate a financial windfall for the investors,  but am encouraged by the cautious spin of their PR that initially they are raising money only for lab experiments that will not take place in the stratosphere, and generally  support any and all practical efforts to move forward on SAI deployment as time is a fleeting and we need to begin practical work on this if we're going to be able to "shave the peak" by 2035 or even 2050 - and the sooner we do this the more harm reduction to humans and other species, and the shorter period (of the possibly centuries) it will take for the removal of GHG from the atmosphere and oceans necessary to restore a safe and stable climate.  

Thanks to Aria and Mike for flagging this one!

Best,

Ron

PS - If someone could copy the article and post that would be good as I, for example, have run out of non-paywalled access

2. Stardust Solutions raises $60 million to develop a geoengineering system

Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer has a big scoop this morning: Geoengineering startup Stardust Solutions is set to announce that it has raised $60 million in venture capital to develop the tools needed to artificially cool the planet by reflecting sunlight away from Earth. The company, led by a team of Israeli physicists, aims to spray aerosols into the atmosphere that will bounce energy from the sun back into space to balance out the effects of greenhouse gases. The technology is on track to be ready by the end of the decade. Lowercarbon Capital led the funding round, which is the company’s second, following a $15 million seed round in 2024. Rob’s story offers a measured assessment of the dangers of potentially geoengineering the atmosphere — and the threat of failing to do so when efforts to mitigate emissions are so far from where they need to be to preserve the climate norms in which humans evolved as a species. In a line that harkens to one of my favorite books, journalist Charles C. Mann’s environmental history of the global trade network that developed after Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas called 1493, Rob notes that “the Earth has not been free of human influence for millennia,” and that “the world has over and over again been remade by human hands.”   “Stardust may not play the Prometheus here and bring this particular capability into humanity’s hands,” Rob writes. “But I have never been so certain that someone will try in our lifetimes. We find ourselves, once again, in the middle of things.”

2. Stardust Solutions raises $60 million to develop a geoengineering system

Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer has a big scoop this morning: Geoengineering startup Stardust Solutions is set to announce that it has raised $60 million in venture capital to develop the tools needed to artificially cool the planet by reflecting sunlight away from Earth. The company, led by a team of Israeli physicists, aims to spray aerosols into the atmosphere that will bounce energy from the sun back into space to balance out the effects of greenhouse gases. The technology is on track to be ready by the end of the decade. Lowercarbon Capital led the funding round, which is the company’s second, following a $15 million seed round in 2024. Rob’s story offers a measured assessment of the dangers of potentially geoengineering the atmosphere — and the threat of failing to do so when efforts to mitigate emissions are so far from where they need to be to preserve the climate norms in which humans evolved as a species. In a line that harkens to one of my favorite books, journalist Charles C. Mann’s environmental history of the global trade network that developed after Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas called 1493, Rob notes that “the Earth has not been free of human influence for millennia,” and that “the world has over and over again been remade by human hands.”   “Stardust may not play the Prometheus here and bring this particular capability into humanity’s hands,” Rob writes. “But I have never been so certain that someone will try in our lifetimes. We find ourselves, once again, in the middle of things.”

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[Dr. Soumitra Das]

Hi Herb,

Thanks again for your thoughtful take — I really value the nuance and perspective you bring to this discussion. I completely agree that Stardust’s entry shouldn’t be condemned. In fact, it’s encouraging to see private capital finally accelerating SRM development, which we may urgently need in the coming years.

My concern, however, is the lack of governance. The primary goal of any private company is to maximize shareholder value — and in an imperfectly competitive market, those profit motives could easily drive suboptimal outcomes if left unchecked. That’s why I emphasized the need for rapid development of transparent governance frameworks — not to slow innovation, but to ensure it unfolds safely, ethically, and equitably.

I also agree with your point about David Keith’s skepticism.

Ultimately, while private-sector participation is positive, the Global South — which will be affected the most — must accelerate its own SRM R&D. Without scientific and policy capacity in the region, decisions will be made elsewhere, which could further deepen existing inequities.

In an ideal world free of special interests and conflicts, we wouldn’t need private companies to tackle a planetary challenge of this magnitude — but since we don’t live in that world, governance and representation become even more critical.

Warmly,
Soumitra

[rob...@rtulip.net]

The Stardust funding is good news.  Restoring planetary albedo is absolutely necessary to prevent economic and social and environmental collapse.  Sunlight reflection will be a major industry in this century, scaling like aviation and petrochemicals did in the last century, as basic planetary security infrastructure. 

 

A commercial lobby is needed to get governments to support an Albedo Accord, taking a narrow approach to governance of rebrightening while efforts on carbon continue to flounder in climate irrelevance.  The funding for Stardust can help galvanise this lobby. An Albedo Accord modelled on the Montreal Protocol is the best way forward.

 

The politico article includes the statement that “The surge of investor enthusiasm for Stardust comes amid stalled political efforts in Washington and other capitals to reduce the use of oil, gas and coal — the main drivers of climate change.”   Speaking precisely, it is not true that the “use” of fossil fuels is the main driver.  We are now in a situation where the heat from past emissions is causing albedo collapse which in turn is causing much more immediate warming than new emissions.  That means cutting new emissions by reducing hydrocarbon energy use cannot by itself slow climate change, destroying the whole rationale of the Paris Accord.

 

The need for effective climate cooling points to a paradigm shift where startups like Stardust are creating a new rebrightening industry and forcing the construction of governance arrangements.  The Royal Society estimate that sunlight reflection is 1000 times better value for money as a cooling investment than renewables strongly supports this perspective.

 

I remain of the view that opposition to solar geoengineering among climate activists is driven by the commercial interests of the renewable energy industry.  Whether directly or indirectly, the need for investor certainty on renewables rollout underpins the whole false moral hazard narrative.  That is not a stable or reasonable situation, and it has already caused dangerous delay in commercialising sunlight reflection.  I would not be surprised at all to see conservative politicians come out in support of Stardust as a way to extend the challenge to the renewable energy focus of climate policy.

 

Regards

 

Robert Tulip



 

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Chairman, HCI India

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[oswald....@hispeed.ch]

Dear Herb,

 

it’s great that Stardust exists. It opens the market, and it will create competition. That’s good.

 

Not so good is the fact that they try to hide their IP. If you want to provide a public good, which you expect to be paid by the public, you should put your cards on the table and say what exactly you want to do.

 

Not so good is also the fact that they appear to be a profit-oriented venture. But that, on its own, is acceptable.  

 

Finally - not so good is the combination of the first two points. Are they going to say that they have the IP and henceforth the monopoly to provide that service? That would, IMHO, be a clear NoGo.

 

Cooling the climate is possibly a business, yes. But it cannot be a a business where somebody gets rich. That would – rightly- infuriate the public. If they do not correct this image, they might create more damage than good.  

 

Regards

 

Oswald Petersen

Atmospheric Methane Removal AG

Lärchenstr. 5

CH-8280 Kreuzlingen

Tel: +41-71-6887514

Mob: +49-177-2734245

https://amr.earth

https://georestoration.earth

https://cool-planet.earth

 

Von: healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com> Im Auftrag von H simmens

Gesendet: Samstag, 25. Oktober 2025 14:00
An: Dr. Soumitra Das <mr.soum...@gmail.com>
Cc: Aria Mckenna <ar...@globalcoolingproductions.com>; healthy-planet-action-coalition <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>; Climate Alliance Healthy <healthy-clim...@googlegroups.com>; Healthy Climate Initiative <healthy-clima...@googlegroups.com>; Planetary Restoration <planetary-...@googlegroups.com>

 



 

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