• Studies show negative impacts due to the release of these aerosols and that they cause meteorological imbalances.
  • There is an international moratorium that remains in force against the deployment of geoengineering.

To prohibit and, where appropriate, stop experimentation practices with solar geoengineering in the country, the Government of Mexico, through inter-institutional coordination between the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) and the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), will carry out actions attached to the precautionary principle to protect communities and environmental environments. 

The United Nations (UN) Convention on Biological Diversity, to which Mexico is a party, established in 2010 a moratorium that is still in force against the deployment of geoengineering.

The opposition to these climatic manipulations is based on the fact that there are currently no international agreements that address or supervise solar geoengineering activities, which represent an economically advantageous way out for a minority and risky for the supposed remediation of climate change. 

For this reason, Semarnat will implement a strategy that prohibits these practices within the national territory, which will serve to strengthen the first references worldwide. Under the precautionary principle and the bases established in the Montreal Protocol, which promotes the protection of the ozone layer and the fight against climate change, any large-scale practice with solar geoengineering in its territory will be stopped, which presumes to be technologies of large scale, but are still under development.

Conacyt will coordinate with experts the review of existing rigorous scientific research to expose the serious risks that solar geoengineering practices represent for the environment, people and their community settings. 

In addition, work is being done to make relevant information available to the general public on the subject of geoengineering that has been promoted in recent years by companies, scaling up investments so that, without scientific support, they perceive them as alternative technologies to face the impacts of climate change. .

Solar geoengineering practices seek to counteract the effects of climate change, through the emission of gases into the atmosphere such as: sulfur dioxide, aluminum sulfate, among others. This process induces the sun’s rays to be reflected back into space, thus avoiding the increase in temperature in a specific geographical area.

However, there are enough studies that show that there would be negative and unequal impacts associated with the release of these aerosols, which cause meteorological imbalances such as winds and torrential rains, as well as droughts in tropical areas; in addition to generating impacts on the thinning of the planet’s ozone layer.

Recently in the state of Baja California Sur, the Startup Make Sunsets, carried out technical experiments of this type, launching meteorological balloons with sulfur dioxide, without prior notice and without the consent of the Government of Mexico and the surrounding communities. In the blog of the Make Sunsets website, the company states that it does not know the results of the experiment, since the balloons were not monitored or recovered.

The Government of Mexico reiterates its unavoidable commitment to the protection and well-being of the population against practices that generate risks to human and environmental security, working in a coordinated, rigorous and responsible manner for the well-being of the people of Mexico.

Joint Press Release No. 3/23

Mexico City, January 13, 2023.”

Note that the  Mexican government told Reuters it is now actively drafting “new regulations and standards” to prohibit solar geoengineering inside the country. Mexico also plans to rally other countries to ban the climate strategy, a senior government official told Reuters.