In what appears to be another failed geoengineering experiment, Canadian company Planetary Technologies has withdrawn from Cornwall’s St. Ives Bay, effectively abandoning their experimental attempt to capture carbon dioxide after the community raised serious concerns.
After public outcry and scrutiny from community members, the company that dumped magnesium hydroxide in the open ocean has ceased operations. Despite Planetary Technologies’ assurances of safety and claims of environmental benefits, local residents and environmental groups raised significant concerns about the potential risks to marine life and the lack of transparency.
The project was funded by the UK government and by Elon Musk, in a growing trend of geoengineering projects being funded by Silicon Valley billionaires.
According to observers, these highly speculative techno-fixes raise serious human rights concerns, along with urgent questions about accountability and oversight – especially given their potential to harm ocean ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
They added that the St. Ives Bay incident adds to a growing list of failed or halted geoengineering projects worldwide like Arctic Ice Project, Alameda marine cloud brightening project, Harvard backed SCoPEx project and the shut down of the Running Tide company.
Sue Sayer, MBE, Founder and Director, Seal Research Trust, said: “We’re celebrating common sense – for Cornwall, for seals, for safe seas, and for livelihoods. It’s a relief to see that community voices can still influence decision-making by asking the right questions and feeding them into licensing authorities to ensure due diligence is done.
“There’s a vital lesson here: if you want to do something in Cornwall, you need to do it properly – with communities involved from the very start to make sure the project is designed responsibly. David Attenborough once said, ‘the sea will save us’ – but geoengineering it with unknown consequences is a high-risk strategy. Planetary Technologies are ending the way they started: by failing to inform the Environment Agency or the public.”
Senara Wilson Hodges, Coordinator, Keep Our Seas Chemical Free, said: “The prospect of further chemical testing in St. Ives Bay has caused deep concern to our community for two years. We’re relieved that Planetary Technologies have ceased operations, and we know this is because the community insisted on holding them to account. We asked important questions and demanded answers. We found out that the design of their experiment was shoddy, its financing was unethical, and they were profoundly ignorant about the marine ecosystem of our bay and the community living around it.”
Mary Church, Geoengineering Campaign Manager, Center for International Environmental Law, said: “The scrapping of a highly controversial geoengineering trial in Cornwall represents a huge victory for the local community. Their tireless efforts ensured that Planetary Technologies’ experiment in St. Ives Bay faced the necessary scrutiny, revealing critical flaws in the process. Ocean alkalinity enhancement technology would not only entail massive, energy-intensive mining operations but also threaten essential marine ecosystems and jeopardize the oceans’ capacity to absorb carbon.
“Manipulating our oceans is not the answer to the climate crisis. Marine geoengineering poses grave dangers to ocean ecosystems and human rights. States have legal obligations to urgently prioritise real solutions to the climate crisis, starting with a full, fast, fair, and funded fossil fuel phase-out.”
Coraina de la Plaza, Coordination, Hands Off Mother Earth! (HOME) Alliance, said: “The community of St. Ives Bay stood together against marine geoengineering and Planetary Technologies. This is a monumental victory that belongs to the community and benefits the planet and future generations. Geoengineering approaches, including marine geoengineering, do nothing to address the root causes of the climate crisis, and they only distract from and delay real solutions. While there is still a lot to do to stop marine geoengineering, this great victory reflects the power of communities.”