Ahead of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) holding from July 14 to 18, 2025, African civil society and climate justice groups and movements are issuing an urgent call to governments of the region to reject all forms of geoengineering on the African continent and globally.
Africa faces a grave threat as geoengineering – the large-scale technological interventions in the Earth’s systems – attempts to mask the symptoms of climate change instead of addressing its root causes. This can cause disruptions to African monsoon, collapse of ecosystems and displace peoples and communities.
At AMCEN 2023, African Ministers collectively called for a global governance mechanism for the non-use of solar radiation modification. To protect Africa and African people, the group urged AMCEN to renew and expand that call, with Africa continuing to lead in global efforts to establish an International Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement.
Despite growing opposition, Africa is being targeted by geoengineering proponents pushing what is termed risky and speculative approaches such as Solar Radiation Modification/Manipulation (SRM), often under the guise of African leadership on climate crisis. These efforts attempt to co-opt African policymakers, mislead the public, and shift the burden of climate risk onto the very continent that has contributed the least to global emissions.
Across the continent, African communities are already advancing real climate solutions rooted in climate justice – from agroecology and renewable energy to ecosystem restoration and community-led adaptation.
Civil society groups are also calling on all social movements, Indigenous communities, youth, and grassroots organisations across the continent and the world to join them in rejecting geoengineering and advancing real, just, and community led solutions to the climate crisis.
Dr. Mfoniso Xael, Programmes Manager, Health of Mother Earth Foundation, said: “Geoengineering is a false fix – risky, reckless, and rooted in the same broken thinking that caused the climate crisis. Africa must not become a laboratory for reckless techno-fixes like solar radiation manipulation that gamble with our monsoons, ecosystems, and lives. We reject this neocolonial bait-and-switch that masquerades as innovation while deepening injustice. Real solutions are already in our hands, rooted in agroecology, energy sovereignty, and community-led resilience. Africa must lead not in planetary manipulation, but in global resistance to it.”
Kwami Kpondzo, Director Centre pour la Justice Environnementale, Togo, said: The climate solutions need to be democratised and people centred solutions, not imposed colonial geoengineering technologies such as Solar Radiation Manipulation which will bring more harm to the people and nature. Geoengineering is not a solution to the climate crisis, not in the present time or in the future. Africa doesn’t need to waste time and energy for capacity building on geoengineering technologies but rather needs to amplify people’s solutions that are in harmony and peace with Mother Earth. NO to Solar Radiation Modification as climate solution, YES to real peoples’ solution.”
Josué Aruna, Executive Director of Congo Basin Conservation Society CBCS-Network DRC, said: “We would like to draw the attention of young people and African researchers not to be attracted by the financial means that neo-colonialism uses to divert our attention from the real issues of fighting climate change and destroying our future. Africans must turn their backs against this kind of support. Africa must be seen as humanity’s hope in the fight against climate change and not as a laboratory for dangerous technologies such as geoengineering.”
Amos Nkpeebo, FIDEP Foundation, Ghana, said: “This is a defining moment. As African youth, we bear the brunt of intergenerational climate injustices, and we refuse to accept dangerous illusory shortcuts like geoengineering that could further destabilize our future. The risk of termination shock and long-term planetary disruption is too great. Proven solutions already exist, like solar PV, agroecology and other resilience strategies led by our communities. We urge African leaders to invest in these real, just solutions, not untested experiments that gamble with the future of African youth.”
Kenneth Nana Amoateng, Executive Director, AbibiNsroma Foundation, Ghana, said: “Solar geoengineering does not address the drivers of human-induced climate change, nor does it address the full range of climate and other impacts of anthropogenic greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions. Solar geoengineering is not a climate solution. It is a technological gamble that the people of Africa cannot afford. Civil Society and AMCEN need to reject all forms of geoengineering on the African continent.”