According to a communiqué issued by the ETC Group, an active civil society organization in this area, the proposal for the moratorium “had almost unanimous support with strong declarations from countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America”. However, the recommendation will be taken by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, pointing that there is no absolute consensus on this, since Canada did not support the majority’s position.

The communiqué explains that the text approved provides that “no geo-engineering activity related with climate will be carried out until there are scientific grounds to justify such activities and proper consideration of the risks associated with the environment and biodiversity and the associated social, economic and cultural impacts”.

Geo-engineering implies “any large scale effort to adjust the planetary systems to climate change” and includes “proposals to bomb sulfates in the atmosphere, to block the sun light, to through salts to the clouds to increase their reflectivity”. It also implies “to transform large areas on land or in the sea in order to sequester the excess of greenhouse gases”, reads the communiqué by the ETC Group.

Besides putting forward a moratorium proposal on all the geo-engineering activities, the SBSTT also reviewed and supported the current moratorium on the geo-engineering techniques, oceanic fertilization, adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, in 2008.

However, in view that the advocates of geo-engineering are preparing actions to stop the moratorium to be ratified in October, over a hundred civil society organizations – including the ETC Group- are carrying out the campaign Do not Manipulate Mother Earth, as a way to pressure to stop the geo-engineering experiments.

“How dare they reclaim the right to block the sun, to paint the clouds. To change the chemistry of the ocean?” says the Canadian author Noami Klein, who supports the campaign of the organizations. “Look how much oil was spilled in the Gulf Coast. If there is a lesson to be learned from this disaster is that we cannot control the effects of our technology, and our technology cannot solve the alterations we cause on the Earth”, she said. “It is time for a bit of collective humility before the huge natural forces. We must stop our ecologic arrogance now”.

Photo: www.ecologiaverde.com