By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-09-30 05:26:01 | Updated at 2026-09-30 06:06:25
1 hour ago
Labour has formally declared that it will not press ahead with plans to dim the Sun in a bid to cool down the planet.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) published a document on Tuesday setting out its stance on solar radiation management (SRM) technologies.
"The UK Government does not support the deployment of SRM and does not plan to do so," the department confirmed.
SRM encompasses a range of approaches - from brightening clouds and spraying aerosols into the upper atmosphere to placing mirrors in orbit - all designed to reflect sunlight back into space.
But it has been mocked in the past as a "crackpot idea" and a "madcap experiment".
The chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, Lord Mackinlay, previously warned: “These crackpot ideas at vast taxpayers’ expense continue to spew out from the Government, but we have long since been surprised at anything that Secretary of State Ed Miliband promotes.”
Meanwhile, the Taxpayers' Alliance said Britons will be fuming that their cash is being "splurged on madcap sun-dimming experiments".
Stardust, a US-Israeli venture, secured $75million (£57million) in recent funding to pursue stratospheric aerosol injection, a method that seeks to replicate the cooling effect observed after major volcanic eruptions.
DESNZ published a document on Tuesday setting out its stance on solar radiation management technologies
Yet the science remains fiercely contested, with the Royal Society warning that such interventions risk disrupting rainfall and potentially triggering droughts.
Ministers made clear that Net Zero is still Labour's main focus.
DESNZ said: "The Government's focus is on tackling the underlying causes of climate change by delivering Net Zero and raising international climate mitigation ambition.
"Its priority is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from human activities and adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change."
SRM encompasses a range of approaches, all designed to reflect sunlight back into space
GETTY
Despite ruling out dimming the Sun, Whitehall has nonetheless committed £56.8million to research into Earth-cooling methods, distributed through the Advanced Research and Invention Agency.
Among the projects receiving Aria backing are a University of Manchester team looking to spray saltwater into clouds, and a University of Reading group which wants to electrify clouds so they become more reflective.
DESNZ says Aria's remit has firm boundaries.
"Aria is not funding experiments that release toxic materials into the environment, large or sustained field trials, or activities that would contribute to the deployment of these approaches," it said.
The Ministry of Defence has also committed funding to SRM-related research, it was recently revealed
The Ministry of Defence has also funded SRM-related research, as The Observer recently revealed.
Shaun Fitzgerald, who leads the Centre for Climate Repair at the University of Cambridge, praised the Government's position as sensible.
He said: "It is basically saying the Government supports responsible research that advances scientific understanding of the risks and impacts associated with SRM and complies with all domestic and international regulations.
"This makes sense to me because the range of uncertainties is too high to consider deployment of SRM."
He added: "We need to further understand whether SRM could be deployed at some point in the future because if we collectively fail on the scale and pace of reductions in greenhouse gases which are required to avoid the worst effects of climate change, then we need to know what other options there may be to keep a lid on temperature rise," he added.
