The United States Central Intelligence Agency is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into a new scientific research project to determine if manipulation of the Earth’s environment is a viable means of preventing climate change.

The $630,000 geoengineering study is being spearheaded by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the “US Intelligence Community,” according to the NAS website.

NAS spokesman William Kearney confirmed to Mother Jones—which first broke the story—that the CIA is indeed behind the scheme. Though he refused to comment on their role, CIA spokesman Edward Price acknowledged, “It’s natural that on a subject like climate change the Agency would work with scientists to better understand the phenomenon and its implications on national security.”

The goal of the study includes a “technical evaluation of a limited number of proposed geoengineering techniques,” and an examination of the “potential impacts of deploying these technologies, including possible environmental, economic, and national security concerns.”

More specifically, the scientists plan to experiment with various means of solar radiation management (SRM), which Mother Jones describes as “a fancy term for pumping particles into the stratosphere to reflect incoming sunlight away from the planet,” as well as carbon dioxide removal (CDR) techniques.