As global climate negotiations opened in Belém this week, civil society groups under the Hands Off Mother Earth (HOME) Alliance issued a renewed warning against geoengineering technologies, describing them as “dangerous false solutions” that threaten communities, ecosystems and climate stability.
At the opening of the Peoples Summit held alongside COP30, the alliance — a network of nearly 200 organisations representing indigenous peoples, human rights groups and climate justice movements — relaunched its 2025 Manifesto, titled “Our HOME Is Not a Laboratory.”
The document calls for a global halt to geoengineering and urges governments to prioritise real climate solutions that centre Indigenous knowledge, community-led approaches, and the phase-out of fossil fuels.
The manifesto argued that geoengineering — the deliberate large-scale manipulation of Earth’s climate systems — is increasingly promoted by powerful interests and carbon market actors despite warnings about its social, environmental and geopolitical risks.
According to the alliance, proposals such as solar radiation management, large-scale carbon removal, and marine geoengineering could worsen inequality, violate Indigenous rights, and destabilise ecosystems.
Activists also warned that provisions in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which governs global carbon markets, may open the door for untested geoengineering experiments under the guise of emissions offsetting.
The HOME Alliance noted that communities worldwide have previously mobilised to stop geoengineering experiments — from the Arctic Ice Project to attempts in St. Ives Bay — demonstrating that public resistance remains strong.
“Our home, our lands, our oceans, and our sky are not a laboratory,” the coalition declared.
Leading voices from across the alliance issued direct and forceful statements.
Nigerian, Mfoniso Xael of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) warned that geoengineering poses “double injustice” to Africa, where communities least responsible for climate change would face catastrophic side effects, including disrupted rainfall and food systems.
The Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Linda Schneider warned that industrial-scale carbon removal could intensify land and resource grabs in the Global South while enabling major emitters to avoid real emissions.
Josue Aruna of the Congo Basin Conservation Society condemned the promotion of “false climate solutions,” urging African governments to reject geoengineering and demanding increased funding for forest restoration and biodiversity protection.
Gary Hughes of Biofuelwatch and Veronica Villa of ETC Group criticised proposals involving carbon capture, ocean fertilisation and large-scale biomass schemes, describing them as speculative technologies that risk worsening the climate and biodiversity crises.
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Youth representative Dylan Hamilton of ANGRY said young people would not remain silent as governments embrace “techno-fixes” that endanger the planet.
The HOME Alliance called on governments participating in COP30 to reject geoengineering in all its forms and instead focus on accelerating fossil fuel phase-out, supporting frontline communities, and strengthening ecological restoration efforts.
The manifesto is available in multiple languages and forms part of the alliance’s long-running campaign launched in 2010 to protect communities and ecosystems from large-scale climate manipulation technologies.
