A pioneering UK project to test technology for a climate "tech fix" has been postponed for at least a year.
The Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (Spice) project would have pumped water droplets into the atmosphere from a tethered balloon.
The kit could then have been used to disperse tiny dust particles to cool the Earth, as volcanic eruptions do.
The Spice chiefs cite problems with regulations, intellectual property and public engagement.
The balloon was originally due to go up last October from the disused Sculthorpe airfield in Norfolk.
It would have ascended to about 1km. Water would have been pumped up a pipe from the ground and out of a fine nozzle, with scientists monitoring how the droplets spread and how the balloon and tether responded to changing winds.
A total of about two bathloads of water would have been dispersed.
But an advisory panel convened by the ...