Solar management is all hype and has no scientific basis.

Solar radiation management is not a solution to the climate problem

Solar radiation management does not address the drivers of human-induced climate change, nor does it address the full range of climate and other impacts of anthropogenic greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions. Solar radiation management [SRM] aims at limiting temperature increase by deflecting sunlight, mostly through injection of particles into the atmosphere. At best, SRM would mask warming temporarily, but more fundamentally is itself a potentially dangerous interference with the climate system.

Solar radiation management [SRM] would alter the global hydrological cycle as well as fundamentally affect global circulation patterns such as monsoons. Substantial monsoon disruptions induced by SRM cannot be ruled out. SRM may not halt ocean warming around Antarctica and would fail to counteract the increasing contribution of Antarctic melt to sea level rise.

Solar radiation management does not halt, reverse or address in any other way the profound and dangerous problem of ocean acidification which threatens coral reefs and marine life as it does not reduce CO2 emissions and hence influence atmospheric CO2 concentration. SRM does not counter other effects of increased CO2 concentration adversely affecting the terrestrial and marine biosphere.

SRM is unlikely to attenuate the effects of global warming on global agricultural production. Its potentially positive effect due to cooling is projected to be counterbalanced by negative effects on crop production of reducing solar radiation at the earth’s surface.

There is very high scientific uncertainty on the potential impacts of solar radiation management, and these cannot be resolved by field experiments. Most studies of solar radiation management are based on highly idealised scenarios and assumptions that differ substantially from discussed, real-world applications of solar radiation management. Results of idealised experiments should not be conflated with discussions around solar radiation management ‘solutions’ based on very different techniques.

Solar radiation management [SRM] would undermine renewable energy potentials. As it reduces the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth’s surface, solar radiation management would greatly diminish the potential one of the biggest alternatives to fossil fuel electricity generation: solar energy.