https://www.axios.com/2024/05/03/geoengineering-firm-climate-diplomat
*Author* Andrew Freedman *03 May 2024* [image: Illustration of the Earth shaped like metal cog] Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Janos Pasztor, a veteran climate scientist and diplomat, has joined a solar geoengineering <https://www.axios.com/2022/12/10/geoengineering-research-hacking-planet> firm as an independent consultant, he tells Axios. Why it matters: The move is a sign of how quickly geoengineering, which refers to deliberately modifying the environment to temporarily slow or halt human-caused climate change, is being viewed as a viable option as global warming <https://www.axios.com/energy-environment/extreme-weather> worsens. Pasztor's job will be to consider the governance implications <https://www.axios.com/2023/07/07/biden-administration-takes-geoengineering-step-eu> of a private company potentially modifying conditions in the upper atmosphere, and he tells Axios his work products will be made public. Zoom in: The company is called Stardust Solutions, and they claim to have raised $15 million from private investors, with some money coming from the Israeli Defense Ministry. - He will donate his earnings to an NGO working on climate change, he told Axios. - Pasztor spent two years contemplating the governance needs for managing geoengineering, specifically solar radiation management schemes. - Now "retired," he said he overcame his reluctance to take on this role (and to engage with a U.S.-Israeli company given the ongoing war in Gaza) because of the work's urgency and importance. - Companies are moving ahead <https://www.npr.org/2024/04/21/1244357506/earth-day-solar-geoengineering-climate-make-sunsets-stardust> with geoengineering demonstration projects and raising millions <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/climate/global-warming-clouds-solar-geoengineering.html> for ultimately deploying such technology, without governments and society at large weighing in on such an immense topic. What they're saying: "Whether one is for or against, or even unsure of the eventual use of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI, or solar geo-engineering), it needs society-wide discussions," Pasztor told Axios in an email. - "Societies and their governments need to decide whether they wish to ban such activities; allow them to continue, but within guardrails; or do nothing, and let these different actors do what they want!" Pasztor said, knowing he may take some heat for consulting for such a venture. - "This governance gap needs to be urgently filled." Between the lines: Paztor is a longtime, well-known climate scientist and diplomat who once served as a top climate advisor to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. - His willingness to take on an independent geoengineering consulting gig indicates how quickly this field is moving, as compared with the development of any coherent governance structures. - It is a sign that if governments and society at large do not act soon, the tech could simply be deployed, with unknown and potentially large-scale consequences. *Source: Axios* -- 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 geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/geoengineering/CAHJsh98UPvTG9BkDH03iERqxHFWNPQ1OF%2B9ADsMsPy5jEfKwBg%40mail.gmail.com.
