Hi all, I work for GiveWell <http://www.givewell.org/>, a nonprofit that does research to help donors decide where to give, and we're in the early stages of considering recommending funding for geoengineering research. One question we're interested in as we think about that is how much funding is already directed to geoengineering research.
Andy Parker and David Keith have put together a helpful list of publicly funded solar geoengineering research projects around the world, including funding information: http://environment.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/srm_projects_around_the_world.pdf (linked from here <http://environment.harvard.edu/geoengineering>). In the interest of trying to get an estimate of the total global annual funding for solar geoengineering research, I've added a few projects (mostly US- and philanthropically-funded) to their list, added timing info where I could find it, and uploaded it to Google Docs here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhzKnm3ez8kJdElmRmE3aFN4bTMtYl9lamo3SDlyM1E&usp=sharing My total estimate comes out to around $10 million/year. Key (uncertain) assumptions include: - Continued support from Bill Gates for FICER<http://www.keith.seas.harvard.edu/FICER.html> at ~$1.5 million/year - 50% of SCRiM' <http://scrimhub.org/>s main NSF grant is devoted to geoengineering research. The grant is mentioned as a source of support for GeoMIP <http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/GeoMIP/support.html> but the 50% figure is pulled out of nowhere. Programs I know of but don't have any funding info for include: - Finland's COOL<http://www.uef.fi/en/oikeustieteet/aerosol_intervention> - IASS' Investigation and Assessment of Geo-Engineering Approaches which influence the Composition of the Atmosphere<http://www.iass-potsdam.de/de/forschungscluster/nachhaltige-interaktionen-mit-der-atmosphaere/climate-engineering/investigation> - Exeter's G360 <http://www.exeter.ac.uk/g360/> *I've made *the spreadsheet<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhzKnm3ez8kJdElmRmE3aFN4bTMtYl9lamo3SDlyM1E&usp=drive_web#gid=0> * publicly editable, and I welcome any additions or corrections, *particularly with respect to the above uncertainties. If you add information, some note about the source would be much appreciated (e.g. "I, Jane Smith, work for the program" or "here's the website with the info"). The additions I made--and, I believe, the underlying list compiled by Andy and David--aimed to include projects that have an SRM component (at least), and are explicitly framed as geoengineering. Including projects that are only "relevant" to SRM or that focus exclusively on CDR, as the GAO's 2010 report <http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10903.pdf> did, would lead to significantly larger funding estimates. However, it's not the case that 100% of the included funding is going towards SRM research; many of the included projects also have CDR components. Thanks, Alexander -- Alexander Berger www.GiveWell.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
