Cases / Carbon capture and climate intervention · Sweden · 2021–2024

Harvard halts planned SCoPEx geoengineering balloon test in Sweden

Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.

Nature's voice · report

No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.

Did nature suffer? Not measured.

Not on record

The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.

What the record lacks: 4 none on record · 1 not measured See the gaps

Harvard abandoned its planned SCoPEx balloon experiment, a test of atmospheric geoengineering, after the Saami Council objected to a flight from Kiruna in northern Sweden. The flight never took place, so the sources record no effect on nature.

What?

Harvard dropped its SCoPEx balloon experiment, an atmospheric geoengineering test, in March 2024 after the Saami Council objected and an advisory board cancelled the flight. MIT Technology Review

Where?

Planned launch from Kiruna, northern Sweden. MIT Technology Review

When?

Planned for 2021; dropped in March 2024. MIT Technology Review

Who?

Gained

None on record

Lost

None on record

Harmed

None on record

Why?

The Saami Council objected, and an advisory board cancelled the flight. MIT Technology Review

How?

A balloon flight from Kiruna was part of the planned experiment; the sources reviewed do not describe its equipment. MIT Technology Review

5 of 6 questions answered from the record · open: who

What happened

The record, in order.

MIT Technology Review reported on 18 March 2024 that Harvard had halted its long-planned atmospheric geoengineering experiment.

The SCoPEx balloon experiment was planned to fly from Kiruna in northern Sweden in 2021, and was backed by Gates, Hewlett and Sloan.

The Saami Council said there was no acceptable reason to allow the experiment in Sweden or elsewhere; an advisory board cancelled the flight and the experiment was dropped in March 2024.

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

Nature

Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

Record

None on record Not stated: the funding amounts from Gates, Hewlett and Sloan.
None on record Not stated: whether another launch site was considered.
None on record Not stated: what the balloon would have released, or in what quantity.
None on record The sources record no assessment of the environmental effects of the planned flight.

Did the harm stop?

Not stated in the sources reviewed.

Who paid?

Not stated in the sources reviewed.

Sources

Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

Press and investigations

Report on Harvard halting its atmospheric geoengineering experiment
MIT Technology Review · 2024-03-18

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.

TIAA and Harvard farmland buys in Brazil breached foreign-purchase limits, Incra said Brazil · 2008–2020
- Harvard University (Research institution) — here: owner of the planned SCoPEx experiment; there: endowment that acquired Brazilian farmland, including the Campo Largo property