Cloud seeding: EIR release

Information requested

Does the Scottish Government participate and carry out cloud seeding? If so when was this programme last carried out?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

The answer to your question is that the Scottish Government is neither participating in nor complicit with any geoengineering programme or aircraft spraying activities, including cloud seeding, either in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK.

In 2010 a moratorium on geoengineering activities that would impact on biodiversity, with the exception of small scale scientific research studies undertaken in a controlled setting, was adopted under the UN Convention on Biodiversity. The moratorium, which has been adopted by all 193 signatories to the Convention, including the UK, is to remain in place until there is an adequate scientific basis on which to justify such activities. The Scottish Government considers this to be a proportionate and appropriate response to the uncertainties which still surround the applications of geoengineering.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Therefore we are refusing your request under the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs. The reasons why that exception applies are explained in the Annex to this letter.

Annex 1 - Reasons for not providing information

The Scottish Government does not have the information

Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because the Scottish Government does not participate in cloud seeding.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about cloud seeding, and whether the Scottish Government participates in it, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.