As negotiations at the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16 draw to a close today, the Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance is calling on CBD to stand firm against risky geoengineering technologies that threaten biodiversity, climate, peoples, and communities.
Joined by civil society, Indigenous groups, and youth advocates, members of the HOME Alliance, we urge the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16 to maintain its prudent stance on geoengineering established in 2010, which was reaffirmed in 2016.
For over a decade, the CBD has led the way globally in recognizing the potential dangers of geoengineering. During COP10, it implemented a de facto moratorium on geoengineering to protect biodiversity and Indigenous lands, reaffirming its commitment at COP13 in 2016.
According to Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America Director for ETC Group, it’s important to recognize early on that so-called climate ‘solutions’ like geoengineering could backfire and have grave impacts on biodiversity.
“A precautionary approach remains essential, especially as a wave of geoengineering proposals and open-air experiments now threatens marine and land ecosystems,” said Silvia.
Emphasizing that by reaffirming these decisions, the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16 can continue this leadership to prevent irreversible impacts on biodiversity and communities.
Despite the CBD’s moratorium, commercial and experimental geoengineering activities have accelerated, risking significant harm to human rights and the environment. These highly speculative technologies also risk perpetuating neocolonialism by undermining transformative solutions to the climate crisis while concentrating the power of potential deployment in the hands of major powers and elites, and through land and resource grabs.
Mary Church from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) stated that geoengineering technologies pose significant and unprecedented risks to a wide range of human rights, including as a result of harming biodiversity.
“Human rights ranging from the right to life to the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, right to healthy drinking water, the right to food and children’s rights could all be seriously undermined by geoengineering. Governments must say no to inherently risky and unpredictable technological -fixes and urgently prioritize real solutions to the climate crisis, centering human rights, and starting with a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels,” said Mary Church.
Indigenous leaders emphasize that the world’s biodiversity and traditional ecosystems have thrived under their stewardship and are not on experimental grounds. Adrienne Aakaluk Titus from the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) added that geoengineering and climate manipulation projects are not the solution to a better tomorrow, but further destruction to our planet.
“The Arctic plays a crucial role in the health of our Mother Earth. The forest her lungs. The oceans, rivers, and lakes are her blood. The land, both above and under water her bones. We must protect them all to ensure sustainable and thriving ecosystems for generations to come,” said Adrienne.
