There’s much at stake at this year’s session of the Subsidiary Bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC SB60), which is taking place 3-13 June in Bonn, Germany. The Hands Off Mother Earth (HOME!) Alliance delegation brings together a diverse range of civil society groups from around the world who are focused on countering efforts to push geoengineering technologies as solutions to the climate crisis.

In particular, key negotiations are taking place on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, under which market-based approaches to climate change mitigation are being proposed, including carbon trading and offsetting. If agreed, this would open the door to land-based Carbon Dioxide Removal techniques such as Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and numerous marine-based technologies such as Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement and industrial scale algae farming as so-called “solutions”, which can be used to generate carbon credits and offset the emissions of big polluters.

For much more information on why these issues are important read: Carbon markets, geoengineering and other false solutions: What’s at stake at the current climate talks?

Outside of the negotiations, events such as the Oceans Dialogue are serving as entry points for geoengineering proponents to stage their events. SB60 will host the fourth Oceans Dialogue, and marine-based technologies are a key agenda focus that will be targeted by actors pushing marine geoengineering proposals. In response to this, and the huge proliferation of ocean-based geoengineering experiments that are taking place globally, over 100 organisations led by the HOME! Alliance have published a statement calling on decision-makers to put an end to marine geoengineering experiments, and to protect oceans, marine ecosystems and the communities and Indigenous Peoples that depend on them.

Read the HOME! Alliance press release on the marine geoengineering statement.

The HOME! Alliance also hosted a press conference on geoengineering as a false climate solution at SB60. You can watch a recording of it here and read the accompanying press release here.

Keep track of everything that the HOME! Alliance is doing at SB60 by following on X/Twitter and Linkedin, and watch this space for more announcements and updates!