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AESS Hosted Webinar Series “Into the Great Wide Open? The Promise and Potential Perils of Climate Geoengineering” AESS, co-hosted by the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment (FCEA) and the Environmental Law Section of the American Branch of the International Law Association. Event Date & Time: Friday, March 20th, 2015 12:00pm-1:15pm EDT Event Description: According to recent analyses by the World Resources Institute, Climate Analytics, and the WWF, the pledges made by the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) put the world on course for temperature increases of 3-3.9C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. This could have disastrous consequences for human institutions and natural ecosystems, including massive sea level rise, eradication of coral reefs throughout the world, and potentially catastrophic declines in agricultural production, especially in the global South. As a consequence, increasing attention has been devoted to a series of potential responses that were once considered “taboo,” and “forbidden territory,” climate geoengineering. Climate geoengineering has been defined by the National Academy of Sciences as “options that would involve large-scale engineering of our environment in order to combat or counteract the effects of changes in atmospheric chemistry.” These methods include ocean iron fertilization, marine cloud albedo enhancement, stratospheric sulfate injection, air capture, bioenergy and carbon capture and sequestration and the use of planetary sunshades, all of which have the potential to substantially ameliorate, or reverse, current warming trends. At the same time, all of these schemes could have serious negative ramifications, including adverse regional impacts with momentous implications, e.g. disruption of monsoonal cycles or diebacks of tropical forests, transformation of ocean ecosystems or potential global impacts, e.g. depletion of the ozone layer. While geoengineering was once considered to be “taboo” in the forum of climate change policymaking, the increasing desperation engendered by the specter of passing critical temperature thresholds has led to increasing interest in the approach, including by key stakeholders, including the U.S. Congress and U.K. Parliament, the UK’s Royal Society, and the US National Academy of Science. Even President Obama’s chief science advisor has indicated that geoengineering should “not be taken off the table” as a potential component of climate policymaking. The purpose of this presentation will be to assess the potential benefits of climate geoengineering, as well as potential negative impacts. Moreover, governance issues will be addressed, including pertinent international treaty regimes and the potential implications of overlapping jurisdiction, the contours of a potential framework for liability for potential negative impacts, and how to address potential moral hazard concerns associated with proceeding with a geoengineering research program or deployment of geoengineering technologies. Event Presenter: Dr. Wil Burns is Co-Director of the Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment, a scholarly initiative of American University, and a Scholar in Residence in the School of International Service at American. He previously served as the Director of the Master of Science, Energy Policy & Climate program at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. He also serves as the Chair of the International Environmental Law Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association and President of the Association for Environmental Studies & Sciences. He is the former Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law interest group of the American Society of International Law and Chair of the International Wildlife Law Interest group of the Society. He has published over 75 articles in law, science, and policy journals and has co-edited four books. He holds a Ph.D. in International Environmental Law from the University of Wales-Cardiff School of Law. Prior to becoming an academic, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs for the State of Wisconsin and worked in the non-governmental sector for twenty years, including as Executive Director of the Pacific Center for International Studies, a think-tank that focused on implementation of international wildlife treaty regimes, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. His current areas of research focus are: climate geoengineering; international climate change litigation; adaptation strategies to address climate change, with a focus on the potential role of microinsurance; and the effectiveness of the European Union’s Emissions Trading System. -- 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]. 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