Solar Geoengineering to Reduce Climate Change: A Review of Governance Proposals

Reynolds, Jesse L.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3462306

Cited by 17 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 152 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, the strategic incentives implied by the results highlights the need for further work on the global governance of solar geoengineering. Following the extensive body of literature on solar geoengineering governance 45 , our findings underscore that a robust system of global governance will be necessary to ensure that any future decisions about solar geoengineering deployment are made for collective benefit.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Climate econometric models indicate solar geoengineering would reduce inter-country income inequality

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Exploring heterogeneity in the economic impacts of solar geoengineering is a fundamental step towards understanding the risk tradeoff associated with a geoengineering option. To evaluate impacts of solar geoengineering and greenhouse gas-driven climate change on equal terms, we apply macroeconomic impact models that have been widely applied to climate change impacts assessment. Combining historical evidence with climate simulations of mean annual temperature and precipitation, we project socioeconomic outcomes under high anthropogenic emissions for stylized climate scenarios in which global temperatures are stabilized or over-cooled by blocking solar radiation. We find impacts of climate changes on global GDP-per-capita by the end of the century are temperature-driven, highly dispersed, and model dependent. Across all model specifications, however, income inequality between countries is lower with solar geoengineering. Consistent reduction in inter-country inequality can inform discussions of the distribution of impacts of solar geoengineering, a topic of concern in geoengineering ethics and governance debates.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Climate econometric models indicate solar geoengineering would reduce inter-country income inequality

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Any decision regarding SAG deployment will involve a risk-risk trade-off 149 : how do the risks of deploying, including risks introduced by uncertainty, weigh against the risks of not deploying solar geoengineering? Ultimately, this is a question of governance 150 , and determining what objectives solar geoengineering can and cannot achieve is crucial for understanding what governance mechanisms require further development and expansion 151 , as well as what observations are needed to inform those governance mechanisms 152 .…”

Section: Low-mediummentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As another example, in situ observations of aerosol-cloud interactions in cirrus could address critical uncertainties in solar geoengineering (TaBle 1) and climate science more generally. The societal acceptability and potential risk of harm are greater for field experiments than for modelling or laboratory experiments and, as such, determining the roles of field experiments and whether they should go forward is a matter of governance 150 . We suggest two potential components of a cost-benefit analysis that could judge whether field experiments proceed: ensuring that the information cannot be obtained by another, less intrusive way and specifying that the field experiments are truly mission driven, aimed at addressing high-priority uncertainties.…”

Section: Recommendations On Field Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty and the basis for confidence in solar geoengineering research

Kravitz

MacMartin

2020

Nat Rev Earth Environ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Meanwhile, climate‐scale interventions, generally termed geoengineering, are defined as “deliberate intervention in the climate system to counteract man‐made global warming” (Shepherd, ) and are likely deployed at larger scales than for environmental engineering. There is, however, some overlap between regional and climate‐scale interventions, such as for marine cloud seeding or brightening that is proposed to produce mitigation of severe heat stress conditions from local to large geographic scales (Irvine et al, ; Latham, Kleypas, Hauser, Parkes, & Gadian, ; Reynolds, ). A further example of such overlap is also for ocean alkalization which has been conducted on individual reef sites (see above) but has also been proposed as a climate intervention approach at the basin scale (Albright & Cooley, ).…”

Section: Proposed Ecosystem Interventions From the Organismal To Climmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do we overcome abrupt degradation of marine ecosystems and meet the challenge of heat waves and climate extremes?

Ainsworth

Hurd

Gates

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Extreme heat wave events are now causing ecosystem degradation across marine ecosystems. The consequences of this heat‐induced damage range from the rapid loss of habitat‐forming organisms, through to a reduction in the services that ecosystems support, and ultimately to impacts on human health and society. How we tackle the sudden emergence of ecosystem‐wide degradation has not yet been addressed in the context of marine heat waves. An examination of recent marine heat waves from around Australia points to the potential important role that respite or refuge from environmental extremes can play in enabling organismal survival. However, most ecological interventions are being devised with a target of mid to late‐century implementation, at which time many of the ecosystems, that the interventions are targeted towards, will have already undergone repeated and widespread heat wave induced degradation. Here, our assessment of the merits of proposed ecological interventions, across a spectrum of approaches, to counter marine environmental extremes, reveals a lack preparedness to counter the effects of extreme conditions on marine ecosystems. The ecological influence of these extremes are projected to continue to impact marine ecosystems in the coming years, long before these interventions can be developed. Our assessment reveals that approaches which are technologically ready and likely to be socially acceptable are locally deployable only, whereas those which are scalable—for example to features as large as major reef systems—are not close to being testable, and are unlikely to obtain social licence for deployment. Knowledge of the environmental timescales for survival of extremes, via respite or refuge, inferred from field observations will help test such intervention tools. The growing frequency of extreme events such as marine heat waves increases the urgency to consider mitigation and intervention tools that support organismal and ecosystem survival in the immediate future, while global climate mitigation and/or intervention are formulated.

show abstract

Solar Geoengineering to Reduce Climate Change: A Review of Governance Proposals

Cited by 17 publications

References 152 publications

Climate econometric models indicate solar geoengineering would reduce inter-country income inequality

Climate econometric models indicate solar geoengineering would reduce inter-country income inequality

Uncertainty and the basis for confidence in solar geoengineering research

How do we overcome abrupt degradation of marine ecosystems and meet the challenge of heat waves and climate extremes?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About