As climate extremes intensify and global emissions continue to outpace reduction targets, the question of climate engineering has moved from academic theory to real-world action. Two nations, in particular, are taking very different paths toward atmospheric intervention: the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

While the UK is preparing to experiment with solar radiation modification (SRM) to reduce global temperatures, the UAE has become a world leader in cloud seeding to combat water scarcity. Both efforts are designed to address the escalating impacts of climate change, yet they raise urgent ethical, scientific, and environmental questions about manipulating the sky in the absence of a global consensus.

The UK’s Push for Planetary Cooling

On 7 May 2025, the UK’s Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA) announced a £60 million research programme to explore solar geo-engineering techniques. The initiative, known as Exploring Climate Cooling, supports five new projects that may lead to real-world outdoor experiments.

Among the planned approaches are Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) and Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB), two methods designed to reflect solar radiation and mimic the temporary cooling effects seen after volcanic eruptions. These methods could theoretically reduce global temperatures, buying time as countries work to meet their emissions goals.

One SAI project involves sending mineral dust into the upper atmosphere via a weather balloon to study its behaviour. In another, researchers may spray a fine mist of seawater into the air from a coastal UK location, brightening low-altitude clouds to increase their reflectivity.

Another experiment will focus on Arctic sea ice thickening, based on the theory that restoring albedo in polar regions could help slow melting and delay feedback loops. A modelling-based project is also looking into the potential for space-based mirrors or reflectors, although such interventions remain conceptual. ARIA has emphasized that no outdoor trials will proceed without environmental impact assessments, full public consultation, and strict oversight. The agency clarified that no toxic substances will be released in any proposed experiment.

“There’s a critical missing gap in our knowledge on the feasibility and impacts of SRM,” said Mark Symes, programme director at ARIA. “To fill that gap requires real-world outdoor experiments.”

Yet the announcement has triggered concern from leading scientists and climate experts. Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert, a planetary physicist at the University of Oxford, warned that solar geo-engineering offers a dangerous illusion of control. “It just kicks the can down the road,” he said. “It doesn’t take away the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”

The UAE’s Cloud Seeding Operations

In stark contrast, the UAE has pursued a different form of atmospheric intervention for more than two decades, cloud seeding. Aimed at increasing rainfall in one of the driest regions on Earth, this practice involves aircraft releasing salt flares into cumulus clouds to enhance condensation and precipitation.

According to the UAE’s National Center of Meteorology (NCM), over 300 cloud seeding missions are carried out annually. The country also funds international research into rain enhancement through its UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP), offering millions in grants to develop cloud seeding technologies. In July 2022, the NCM confirmed that cloud seeding operations had helped increase rainfall during periods of extreme heat. More recently, radar-confirmed rainfall across the eastern UAE in March and April 2025 was also linked to targeted seeding efforts.

While the UAE’s seeding programme focuses on regional water security rather than global climate control, the underlying technique, releasing particles into the atmosphere, mirrors some aspects of SRM. However, the UAE has maintained that its methods use natural materials such as salt, in contrast to sulphur-based aerosols proposed in some SRM experiments. According to Dr. Abdulla Al Mandous, Director General of the NCM and President of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), cloud seeding is considered a critical component of the UAE’s climate adaptation strategy, not an attempt to regulate the broader climate system.

The Science and the Risks

Both SRM and cloud seeding share a fundamental premise: human-engineered changes to the atmosphere. But while one aims to cool the planet, the other tries to localize rainfall, and the implications vary widely.

Scientific models have shown that SRM, particularly SAI, could disrupt global weather systems. One study found that brightening clouds off the coast of Namibia could reduce rainfall in South America, threatening the Amazon Basin. Another published in Earth’s Future (2024) suggested that using existing aircraft to inject aerosols at lower altitudes would require triple the materials, increasing risks of acid rain and atmospheric instability.

Cloud seeding, though narrower in scope, isn’t immune to scrutiny either. Critics have questioned whether artificially induced rainfall could interfere with neighbouring weather systems or strain regional water cycles. However, scientific consensus to date suggests that the effects are largely localised, and the materials used are not harmful in current quantities. Yet in both cases, the absence of international regulation has raised alarms.

As of August 2025, no global legal framework exists to govern geo-engineering practices. This leaves room for private ventures, such as US-based startup Make Sunsets, which launched sulphur dioxide-filled balloons commercially and drew backlash from Mexico and environmentalists worldwide.

In the US, multiple states, including Florida and Tennessee, have passed laws restricting or banning geo-engineering and weather modification. A Harvard-led SRM experiment known as SCoPEX was also cancelled in 2023 after opposition from environmental groups and Indigenous communities in Sweden.

A Shared Atmosphere, Diverging Philosophies

The difference between the UK and UAE lies not just in scale, but in intention. Britain’s exploration of SRM is global in ambition, attempting to offset the warming effects of industrial emissions that began in the 18th century. The UAE’s use of cloud seeding is local in scope, focused on addressing immediate needs in a water-stressed environment. But the philosophical divergence goes deeper. SRM is often viewed as a stopgap for mitigation failures, while the UAE positions cloud seeding as part of a broader adaptation strategy that includes renewable energy, desalination, and conservation. Yet both efforts signal a new chapter in climate response, one where technological control of the atmosphere is no longer science fiction. The moral and geopolitical implications are immense.

With no borders in the sky, whose clouds are they to alter?

Conclusion

As the planet passes critical climate thresholds, engineering the sky may seem like the last resort or the next frontier. The UK and UAE present two starkly different approaches, driven by different pressures and expectations. But both stories lead to the same sky, shared, fragile, and increasingly shaped by human hands.

Whether through mirrored clouds or seeded rain, one thing is clear: the atmosphere is no longer off limits.yet they raise urgent ethical, scientific, and environmental questions about manipulating the sky in the absence of a global consensus.