I'm with you, Mike. Given our rather dire circumstances it would seem
potentially devastating not to seriously consider SRM and CDR. Greg
From: Michael MacCracken <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]; geoengineering <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 1, 2017 6:01 PM
Subject: Re: [geo] Former UN climate advisor leads initiative to regulate
geo-engineering
On what basis is one suggesting that the side effects could be "potentially
devastating"? Even with there possibly being unusual or negative consequences
along with, for most regions, the return toward conditions that are more like,
for example, late 20th century conditions, the comparison needs to be to what
the consequences are projected to be without climate intervention, and those
are tremendous, and one might suggest, the ones that should be referred to as
"devastating." There may well be strong reasons not to intervene to alter the
climate, but I don't think that suggesting that the consequences will be worse
than those without climate intervention is anywhere near the top reason and
coming into the analysis with that bias seems to me quite unjustified.
Mike MacCracken
On 3/31/17 5:10 AM, Andrew Lockley wrote:
http://cicero.uio.no/no/posts/klima/former-un-climate-advisor-leads-initiative-to-regulate-geo-engineering
Former UN climate advisor leads initiative to regulate geo-engineering
KLIMA - Et magasin om klimaforskning fra CICERO
Key scientists
Christian BjørnæsCOMMUNICATION DIRECTOR Publisert 23.03.2017
Geo-engineering can be a cheap way of instantly lowering the Earth’s
temperature - with potentially devastating side effects. The technology is here
but international regulation is lacking.
The desire to control the weather is as old as humanity but only over the last
decade have we started to develop technologies to alter the climate. A few are
already developed, some exists only as models, and most are still at the level
of academic research. On 16 February the Carnegie Council for Ethics in
International Affairs launched the Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance
Initiative, a four year initiative to advance the governance of
geo-engineering. The project is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation and lead
by Janos Pasztor. Most recently, Pasztor was the United Nations assistant
secretary-general for climate change under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“There is very little, practically no discussion about geo-engineering at the
policy level. Our job is to move the debate from academia into
intergovernmental policy space and to develop governance”, said Pasztor when
KLIMA met him at COP22 in Marrakech.
Climate geoengineering is deliberate, intentional planetary-scale
interventions in the Earth system to counteract climate change
The long-term objective of the C2G2 Initiative is to encourage policy
dialogues on and to contribute to the development of governance frameworks for
climate geoengineering, which is defined as deliberate, intentional
planetary-scale interventions in the Earth system to counteract climate change.
Two main technologies
Geo-engineering technologies can be divided in two categories. The
technologies that absorb CO2 from the atmosphere are called carbon dioxide
removal. Those that reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the earth’s
surface are called solar radiation management. Solar radiation management,
where for instance particles are spewed into the stratosphere to block sunlight
from reaching the earth’s surface, can work fast and are relatively cheap. The
low cost of some of these technologies could tempt countries and even some
large companies to deploy solar radiation management to protect their
interests. “The problem with solar radiation management is that it doesn’t
solve the problem. Unless you simultaneously reduce emissions, you must manage
the incoming solar radiation for hundreds of years. “Carbon dioxide removal on
the other hand is relatively expensive and it takes time, but it also solves
the problem. You have two completely different techniques and many researchers
believe that we are most likely to use them in combination”, said Pasztor.
Bio energy with CCS
Bio energy with carbon capture and storage, known as BECCS, is a carbon
dioxide removal technology. It is often referred to as negative emissions and
built into most of the IPCCs 2C scenarios. Although considered mostly harmless,
widespread use of BECCS to compensate for high emissions will have side effects
too. “It has huge impact on land use, on water use, it affects precipitation
and therefore can threaten food security”, said Pasztor. The Initiative will
neither promote nor be necessarily against the potential use of climate
geoengineering, but will advocate for the development of governance frameworks
necessary for expanded research on such techniques, including their
environmental, social, and economic impacts, as well as for their potential
deployment. “There is a plausible scenario in the next five, ten, fifteen years
that some governments may turn to geo-engineering. The IPCCs latest assessment
report makes it very clear that to keep warming below 2C, we need to deploy a
lot of negative emissions. Many people believe it is simply not possible to
reach those goals without some combination of geo-engineering.”
Widespread use of BECCS to compensate for high emissions will have side
effects too.
Despite this, geo-engineering is not a hot topic in the international climate
diplomacy. “In the negotiation process, this topic is almost a taboo. There are
no discussions on it. Geo-engineering does not exist in the UNFCCC vocabulary.
You find references to negative emissions which is part of geo-engineering. And
certainly, no reference to solar radiation management.” The reason could be
that many policy makers are afraid geo-engineering will steal attention from
mitigation. Pasztor likens it to the debate around adaptation 15 years ago.
“Those of us who promoted adaptation said it doesn’t matter how much we
mitigate, we still have to do some adaptation. Today, adaptation and mitigation
are looked at almost equally”
Towards government action?
The Initiative is engaging relevant stakeholders in intergovernmental and
international nongovernmental organizations, the research community, think
tanks, the private sector, as well as government officials to raise awareness
about the issues; to encourage policy dialogues; to develop elements of the
necessary governance frameworks; and ultimately to catalyze intergovernmental
action. “We will reach out to governments both systematically and informally.
After a few years, we hope to have a network of organizations and institutions
both inside and outside government that is discussing these issues and
hopefully we will see some government action. “In addition, we will work with
treaties and existing conventions such as the climate convention, the bio
diversity convention and the London anti-dumping convention. We will also be
exploring some new alternative legal arrangements that don’t exist yet”, said
Pasztor. --
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