ETC Group works on global socio-economic and economic issues related with new technologies,
especially on the impacts of technology on indigenous peoples, rural communities and biodiversity.

The group calls geo-engineering as “a proposal of large-scale technological ’patchwork’ to
deliberately manipulate the global climate”, says a press release issued Monday by the organization.

Generally speaking, ETC Group believes that geo-engineering tests pose a serious threat to
biodiversity. They claim in some of their document that because of the scale that the tests need to
be done, they escape the standards used in conventional scientific tests and they are beyond what is provided by international law.

According to the group’s intelligence, British scientists are about to carry out tests on the necessary equipment to disseminate sulphur particles into the stratosphere, in preparation to conduct geo-engineering tests.

The data available shows that scientists from Cambridge University, in collaboration with Oxford
University and the Hadley Center (in a project coordinated by Bristol University) have been
engineering a giant hose, held by a huge balloon to the sky. The hose would be used to spray
particles into the stratosphere in order to block sunlight.

The experiment is planned to be held from October through November of 2011, and it is part of a
project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council with 1.6 million British pounds. The project is called “Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering” (SPICE).

ETC Group’s executive director, Pat Mooney, said that “By allowing this experiment to go forward the UK is undermining intergovernmental discussions on geoengineering that it has financially supported and is very actively participating in. This extremely unhelpful provocation will sour UN negotiations. The UK Government must halt this experiment now and clearly state that it will not support any geoengineering experiments while international talks are ongoing.”

In its press release ETC Group mentions several arguments against the authorization of the British scientific experiment. It highlights the lack of transparency on the part of the researchers involved as shown by their failure to disclose the location, timing or the basic scientific background on the test.

The international organization adds that “the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a
moratorium on geoengineering activities last year in Nagoya, Japan and this experiment goes
against the spirit, if not the letter, of that decision.”

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