Solar geoengineering plans: EIR release

Information requested

1. The date of commencement and all parties involved in atmospheric aerosol projects in Scotland.

2. The materials used in any cloud seeding or geoengineering activities.

3. All funding sources and foreign or private partnerships.

4. All public safety assessments, or lack thereof.

5. Any legal authorisations allegedly obtained for past or future operations.

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4) (a of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception.

While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information on Geoengineering, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold. As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Solar radiation modification (SRM), also known as solar radiation management or solar geoengineering, refers to approaches to limit global warming by increasing the amount of sunlight that the atmosphere reflects back to space or by reducing the trapping of outgoing thermal radiation.

The Scottish Government does not support the use of SRM and is not aware of any SRM projects planned or deployed in Scotland. Any SRM project in Scotland would be required to go through stringent planning and consenting processes, and a full public consultation would be undertaken.

On 7 May 2025, the Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA) announced projects funding for an Exploring Climate Cooling programme.

The Scottish Government have since engaged with ARIA to understand the scope of this research and ARIA have confirmed that no projects will be located in Scotland.

ARIA have informed The Scottish Government that they are not funding any activities designed to 'block the sun' or carry out large-scale climate modification. Their programme focuses strictly on foundational research, modelling, and, where necessary, carefully controlled small-scale outdoor experiments to investigate fundamental scientific processes. ARIA have said that any outdoor experiments will first be subject to an independent and publicly available environmental impact and legal assessment, as well as a co-design process with local communities and that ARIA does not fund any research that releases toxic materials into the environment.

You can read about these projects in detail at

https://www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-spaces/future-proofing-our-climate-and-weather/exploring-climatecooling

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.