African States Stand Firm Against Solar Geoengineering, Urge Real Climate Solutions

African heads of state reaffirmed their opposition to solar geoengineering at this year’s African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, earning praise from climate advocates.

“Solar radiation is a dangerous and short-sighted ambition,” Dean Bhekumuzi, just transitions lead at Power Shift Africa, said in a release. “African Ministers have exposed a critical misalignment between geoengineering and the real needs of climate vulnerable nations.”

More than a refusal of false solutions, the move “should serve as a signal to other global leaders that the path forward is not in atmospheric manipulation, but in confronting the root causes of the climate collapse and investing in equitable, lasting solutions,” Bhekumuzi added.

This year marked the 40th African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), a critical forum for African countries to address the continent’s environmental challenges. Held in Nairobi, the conference drew more than 1,500 delegates, including environment ministers from all of Africa’s 54 countries, civil society, private sector actors, youth, and development partners. Participants issued a High-Level Political Declaration, charting a path for addressing challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss while celebrating progress over the past four decades.

The conference’s decision on Africa’s engagement at the 7th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) in December 2025 reaffirms the continent’s opposition to solar geoengineering on the grounds that the technologies pose significant environmental, ethical, and geopolitical risks, and must not be considered viable within the environmental agenda, Hands Off Mother Earth Alliance reports.

AMCEN also called for a solar geoengineering non-use agreement that would ban any efforts to normalize the technologies, and reaffirms a “full rejection of any attempt to promote stratospheric aerosol injection or other forms of solar geoengineering technology as a climate change mitigation solution.”

Solar geoengineering is a controversial strategy for countering climate change that seeks to reduce the Earth’s warming by reflecting sunlight away from the atmosphere. In stratospheric aerosol injection  (SAI), reflective particles are released into the stratosphere by airplanes or balloons. A rogue SAI experiment in 2023 prompted Mexico to become one of the first countries to ban solar engineering experiments.

Opponents warn the strategy could have serious unintended consequences—such as disrupting local rainfall patterns or triggering a “termination shock.” As the Guardian reported in 2023, experts fear that if emissions continue while geoengineering is deployed, halting the technology could lead to abrupt climate disruption as the underlying warming reasserts itself.

Aside from the direct risks, opponents also criticize solar geoengineering as a distraction from the emissions reductions that are more important for countering climate change.

Decisions issued at this year’s conference build on the AMCEN19/5 held in 2023.