Hi All
The [email protected] gets bounced.
Stephen
Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design. School of Engineering,
University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3DW, Scotland
[email protected], Tel +44 (0)131 650 5704, Cell 07795 203 195,
WWW.homepages.ed.ac.uk/shs, YouTube Jamie Taylor Power for Change
On 02/03/2016 08:43, Andrew Lockley wrote:
http://dcgeoconsortium.org/2016/03/01/announcing-a-new-academic-working-group-on-international-governance-of-solar-climate-engineering/
Announcing a new Academic Working Group on International Governance of
Solar Climate Engineering
The Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment (FCEA) at American
University is pleased to announce the launch of a multi-year look at
international governance pathways for Solar Radiation Management (SRM)
technologies.
Why are we launching this project now?
A small but respected group of scientists has been calling for
consideration of Solar Radiation Management as a further piece of the
climate change response puzzle, in addition to limiting greenhouse gas
emissions, enhancing greenhouse gas sinks, and the taking of adaptive
steps.
Solar Radiation Management (SRM) or “albedo modification” is a class
of technologies that could lower global average temperatures and
offset some of the worst impacts of climate change by reflecting a
portion of incoming solar radiation back into space before that
radiation could be trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Proposals include artificially brightening clouds, increasing the
reflectivity of surface-level planetary features, or depositing
reflective particles in the earth’s upper atmosphere. Such ideas are
in the early stages of development. They are also contentious, given a
wide array of risks that accompany the potential benefits.
Despite this, interest in research and potential development is
growing, given the feckless response on climate change of the global
community to date and the growing recognition that the world may pass
critical climatic thresholds in the course of the next few decades.
Scientists arguing for consideration and research of SRM say these
potential tools represent the only known option that can quickly
suppress temperatures, to buy time for other forms of response to take
hold.
It is our observation that now is the moment for the addition of new
voices, insights, and perspectives. As governments in North America,
Europe and Asia consider whether or not to support an active climate
engineering research agenda, the world stands at an important moment
in the broader climate engineering conversation.
The discussion about SRM is advancing, such that there is little to be
gained by willfully ignoring it.
With this in mind, we are beginning this new project to assess the
wide array of governance challenges presented by consideration of SRM
technologies.
What is the Solar Radiation Management Governance Puzzle?
The governance of solar radiation management (SRM) research and / or
deployment poses both fascinating and thorny issues. SRM options raise
a large number of challenges, driven by the fact that SRM is:
An enterprise that would have truly global risks and benefits;Replete
with distributional issues;Potentially a powerful enough technology
that its development or use could trigger or exacerbate conflict;An
uneasy fit with existing international regimes; andHighly politically
charged, while also being largely an academic notion to this point
The Academic Working Group on International Governance of Climate
Engineering
The project will be based around the sustained deliberations of
a newly constituted academic working group. The group has been tasked
with:
1. Assessing the existing SRM governance conversation;
2. Identifying key debates and open questions;
3. Providing a fresh, authoritative analysis of governance pathways; and
4. Producing crisp, policy-relevant recommendations.
This is hardly the first process to look at the SRM governance puzzle.
We are beginning this work by bringing our working group into
conversation with some of the chief architects of prior SRM
governance-focused processes, along with some of the leading academics
working on climate engineering science, ethics, policy, and law.
All of the group’s work outputs will be posted to this website, to
spark further reflection and discussion.
First Meeting
The first meeting of this working group is taking placeMarch 6-9,
2016, at the School of International Service, American University in
Washington, DC.
The agenda for the first day of that meeting is here. The meeting is
invite-only, with video of the major conference sessions to be posted
to our website following the meeting. For more information, write
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>.
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