Scientists want to cool down the planet by brightening clouds and refreezing the Arctic

TOP boffins are urging Britain and other nations to spend billions of pounds a year on madcap planet-cooling schemes. The group, led by the government's former chief scientific adviser Sir David King, called for big funding to research ways to "geoengineer" the planet. Some of the ideas include brightening clouds by delivering an electric current from drones and refreezing the Arctic by pumping seawater on the top of ice. Others include putting tiny particles into the stratosphere to scatter sunlight back into space, mimicking the global cooling of a volcanic eruption.

The Government is already spending £67m exploring ways to address global warming after widespread heatwaves and drought this summer. Prime Minister Andy Burnham and ministers are preparing to head to Cop31, the UN climate conference, being held in Turkey next week. King, 87, emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, said Britain was "way ahead of the game" on such research and called on other countries to step up. He said Australia, France and Japan are among those that should collectively spend about £22.2bn a year, adding: "At the moment we are nowhere near that."

King called the need urgent, noting that Greenland is losing ice at about 30 million tonnes an hour, threatening coastal cities with rising sea levels. And he highlighted the recent deadly Himalayan disasters as a need to protect glaciers. The UK Government has made clear that although it funded geo-engineering research, it does not support deployment.