The EU wants to know who will illegally block sunlight

The world is discussing controversial technologies to block sunlight in order to reduce global warming. The European Union has announced a tender to identify unauthorized attempts to do this.

"The European Union has announced a tender with a budget of 35 million euros ($ 39.4 million) to finance research and coordinate activities aimed, in particular, at identifying unauthorized attempts to change the Earth's atmosphere by blocking sunlight," Bloomberg writes.

According to him, the EU Horizon Europe program has opened the acceptance of applications for participation in projects.

"This initiative is part of the initial stage of work to coordinate actions in the field of the so—called modification of solar radiation — a new and controversial technology that could potentially be used to cool the planet if the temperature reaches critical thresholds," the agency writes.

The technology of modification of solar radiation (SRM), despite the potential ability to quickly reduce the temperature of the planet, carries enormous environmental, geopolitical and social risks. For example, artificial dimming of the sun can greatly change global precipitation patterns, which can cause catastrophic droughts in some regions and floods in others. Moreover, if the aerosol spraying system in the stratosphere is started and then abruptly stopped for various reasons, then, according to scientists, the greenhouse gases accumulated in the atmosphere will cause lightning-fast and extreme warming. Also, the use of sulfate aerosols can accelerate chemical reactions that destroy the ozone layer. At the same time, the concentration of carbon dioxide will not decrease in any way.

The technology is considered relatively cheap, which makes it possible to use it by one technologically advanced country or even a company. Actually, the detection of such "partisan" efforts is the goal of the new EU tender.