Professor Sir David King, former Government Chief Scientific Advisor, has condemned the Royal Society’s new report on ‘Geoengineering the Climate’. On this morning’s Radio 4 ‘Today Programme’, Tom Fielden, Science Correspondent, stated that Prof. Sir David King had expressed disappointment with the Society in giving credence to ideas which he sees as a distraction. Reflecting views also expressed by Dr Doug Parr, Chief Scientist and Policy Director at Greenpeace, at yesterday’s launch of the report, Prof. Sir David King reportedly views the report as ammunition for those promoting a ‘business as usual’ approach to tackling climate change, allowing emissions reductions to be sidelined as geoengineering is approached as a panacea.

All those at yesterday’s launch clearly made the point that geoengineering could not be seen as a ‘magic bullet’ and that any research into geoengineering should be secondary to attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.