EU calls for global talks on climate geoengineering risks

The European Commission called for international talks on the dangers and governance of geoengineering, which has attracted increasing interest as countries fail to cut greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to curb climate change.

The European Commission on Wednesday called for international talks on the dangers and governance of geoengineering, saying such interventions to alter the climate posed "unacceptable" risks.

Geoengineering has attracted increasing interest as countries fail to cut greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to curb climate change. But the issue of manipulating planetary systems to fight global warming remains highly controversial.

"Nobody should be conducting experiments alone with our shared planet," European Union climate policy chief Frans Timmermans told a news conference.

"This should be discussed in the right forum, at the highest international level."

Geoengineering techniques include directly removing CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. The first plants to do this are already in operation, capturing CO2 in tiny quantities compared with countries' emissions.

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More controversial is solar radiation modification (SRM), which would cut the amount of sunlight reaching Earth's surface by, for example, spraying sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect more light back into space.