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Towards Integrated Ethical and Scientific Analysis of Geoengineering: A Research Agenda

Author(s): Tuana N, Sriver RL, Svoboda T, Olson R, Irvine PJ, Haqq-Misra J, Keller K

Published: July, 2012

Publisher: Ethics, Policy & Environment

DOI: 10.1080/21550085.2012.685557

Tags: Ethics, Research

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21550085.2012.685557

Abstract: Concerns about the risks of unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions are growing. At the same time, confidence that international policy agreements will succeed in considerably lowering anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is declining. Perhaps as a result, various geoengineering solutions are gaining attention and credibility as a way to manage climate change. Serious consideration is currently being given to proposals to cool the planet through solar-radiation management. Here we analyze how the unique and nontrivial risks of geoengineering strategies pose fundamental questions at the interface between science and ethics. To illustrate the importance of integrated ethical and scientific analysis, we define key open questions and outline a coupled scientific-ethical research agenda to analyze solar-radiation management geoengineering proposals. We identify nine key fields of coupled research including whether solar-radiation management can be tested, how quickly learning could occur, normative decisions embedded in how different climate trajectories are valued, and justice issues regarding distribution of the harms and benefits of geoengineering. To ensure that ethical analyses are coupled with scientific analyses of this form of geoengineering, we advocate that funding agencies recognize the essential nature of this coupled research by establishing an Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications program for solar-radiation management.


Precaution and Solar Radiation Management

Author(s): Hartzell-Nichols L

Published: July, 2012

Publisher: Ethics, Policy & Environment

DOI: 10.1080/21550085.2012.685561

Tags: Ethics, Environmental Side-Effects, Research

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21550085.2012.685561

Abstract: Solar radiation management is a form of geoengineering that involves the intentional manipulation of solar radiation with the aim of reducing global average temperature. This paper explores what precaution implies about the status of solar radiation management. It is argued that any form of solar radiation management that poses threats of catastrophe cannot constitute an appropriate precautionary measure against another threat of catastrophe, namely climate change. Research of solar radiation management is appropriate on a precautionary view only insofar as such research aims to identify whether any forms of solar radiation management could be implemented without creating new or exacerbating existing threats of catastrophe.


Now This! Indigenous Sovereignty, Political Obliviousness and Governance Models for SRM Research

Author(s): Powys Whyte K

Published: July, 2012

Publisher: Ethics, Policy & Environment

DOI: 10.1080/21550085.2012.685570

Tags: Ethics, Politics, Governance, Research

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21550085.2012.685570

Abstract: Models are currently being outlined for governance of early research on Solar Radiation Management (SRM), a form of geoengineering. SRM includes techniques that decrease the earth's and its atmosphere's absorption of solar energy such as adding ‘light-scattering aerosols to the upper atmosphere’ and ‘increasing the lifetime and reflectivity of low-altitude clouds’ (Keith, Parson & Morgan, 2010, p. 426). If implemented, the global effects of such SRM solutions will in some fashion impact everyone. Indigenous peoples, among other populations, are right to be concerned about how governance plans unfold.


Unintended Hazards of Geoengineering

Author(s): Saunders P

Published: July, 2012

Publisher: Institute of Science in Society

Tags: Environmental Side-Effects, Research

URL: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Unintended_Hazards_of_Geoengineering.php

Abstract: Harvard geoengineers are set to spray sun-reflecting chemical particles into the atmosphere to cool the planet from a balloon at 80 000 feet over Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Chief investigator David Keith manages a multimillion dollar research fund awarded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and has already commissioned a study by a US aerospace company that made the case for large-scale deployment of solar radiation management technologies. The experiment, to be conducted with James Anderson within a year, will release tens to hundreds of kilograms of particles to measure the impacts on ozone chemistry and test ways of making sulphate aerosols the appropriate size.

Many scientists are opposed to geoengineering experiments, preferring to study the impacts of sulphuric dust emitted by volcanoes, and to use modelling to identify the risks. A British field test involving a balloon and hose-pipe to pump water into the sky, which was part of the government-funded Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (Spice) project was cancelled after public outcry.

But there are good reasons why geoengineering should not be considered.


Climate: More ways to govern geoengineering

Author(s): Long JCS, Hamburg S, Shepherd JG

Published: June, 2012

Publisher: Nature Correspondence

DOI: 10.1038/486323a

Tags: Governance, Research

URL: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v486/n7403/full/486323a.html

Abstract: You call for stronger governance of climate-mitigation strategies that reflect the Sun's energy away from Earth (Nature 485, 415; 2012). We see the scientists' cancellation of a controversial field trial for the UK Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) project (Nature 485, 429; 2012) as responsible self-governance in the absence…


Researchers can't regulate climate engineering alone

Author(s): Blackstock JJ

Published: June, 2012

Publisher: Nature

DOI: 10.1038/486159a

Tags: Governance, Research, Politics

URL: http://www.nature.com/news/researchers-can-t-regulate-climate-engineering-alone-1.10818

Abstract: Political interests, not scientists or inventors, will be the biggest influence on technologies to counter climate change, says Jason Blackstock


Appraising Geoengineering

Author(s): Bellamy R, Chilvers J, Vaughan NE, Lenton TM

Published: June, 2012

Publisher: Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Working Paper

Tags: Research, Governance

URL: http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/sites/default/files/twp153.pdf

Abstract: Deliberate large-scale interventions in the Earth’s climate system – known collectively as ‘geoengineering’ – have been proposed in order to moderate anthropogenic climate change. Amidst a backdrop of many ways of framing the supposed normative rationales for or against their use, geoengineering proposals are undergoing serious consideration. To support decision makers in the multitude of governance considerations a growing number of appraisals are being conducted to evaluate their pros and cons. Appraisals of geoengineering are critically reviewed here for the first time using a systematic literature search and screen strategy. Substantial variability between different appraisals’ outputs originates from usually hidden framing effects relating to contextual and methodological choices. Geoengineering has largely been appraised in contextual isolation, ignoring the wider portfolio of options for tackling climate change –spanning mitigation and adaptation – and creating an artificial choice between geoengineering proposals. Most existing methods of appraisal do not adequately respond to the post-normal scientific context in which geoengineering resides and show a strong emphasis on closed and exclusive ‘expert-analytic’ techniques. These and other framing effects invariably focus – or close down – upon particular sets of problem definition, values, assumptions and courses of action. This produces a limited range of decision options which seem preferable given those framing effects that are privileged, and could ultimately contribute to the closing down of governance commitments. Emergent closure around particular geoengineering proposals is identified and argued to be premature given the need for more anticipatory, responsible and reflexive forms of governing what is an ‘upstream’ domain of scientific and technological development.


Climate Change, Climate Engineering R&D

Author(s): Bickel JE, Lane L

Published: May, 2012

Publisher: Copenhagen Consensus Center

Tags: Research, Economics

URL: http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Projects/CC12/Research/ClimateChange.aspx

Abstract: This paper seeks to answer a question that has been posed as part of the Copenhagen Consensus 2012 (CC12) exploration of global policy. That question is: “If the global community wants to spend up to, say, $75 billion over the next four years to do most good for the world, which solutions would yield the greatest net benefits?” To address this question, we agreed to update our Copenhagen Consensus 2009 (CC09) paper (Bickel and Lane 2010), hereafter BL10. That paper estimated the net benefit of a research and development (R&D) program to explore the safety and efficacy of climate engineering (CE). The current paper extends those estimates. BL10 considered two different CE approaches, solar radiation management (SRM) and air capture. In this paper, however, we restrict our attention to SRM. The paper is intended to be selfcontained. The interested reader will, however, find many supporting details and further discussion in BL10. We begin by first acknowledging that the potential benefit of SRM is so obvious that one hardly needs a formal economic assessment to prove that researching its merits could pay large dividends. The logic is simple: if global warming will cause large damages and require costly abatement measures, then having a relatively low cost SRM technique to offset warming, even partially, would pay large dividends. Furthermore, initial studies estimate the cost of an SRM R&D program as being on the order of a billion dollars. This sum is a small fraction of the CC12 budget. It is an even smaller fraction of what the United States alone is spending on climate‐change research each year. Thus, we believe that the case for including SRM R&D in a portfolio of responses to climate change is strong. Others, such as the Royal Society, agree (Royal Society 2009). Yet, the CC12 process requires numeric benefit‐cost ratio (BCR) estimates. A truly comprehensive benefit cost analysis of R&D into SRM would require quantifying many factors that are highly uncertain. Such an analysis might create the illusion of rigor, but its extreme complexity would be more likely to obscure the policy choices at hand than to clarify them. We have therefore not carried out the most technically detailed analysis that we could imagine. In fact, as discussed below, we decided not to perform a “value of information” or an “options analysis”. We made this choice precisely because we believe that given the current state of knowledge, such analysis would have offered very little in the way of additional insight. Thus, our SRM R&D BCR estimates are necessarily incomplete. We offer them in hopes that initial R&D will produce the new knowledge needed for more refined analysis.


Climate Engineering: Avoiding Pandora's Box through Research and Governance

Author(s): Honegger M, Michaelowa A, Butzengeiger-Geyer S

Published: May, 2012

Publisher: FNI Climate Policy Perspectives

Tags: Policy, Governance, Research, Security

URL: http://www.fni.no/climatepolicyperspectives/FNICPP-05.html

Abstract: The gap between the emissions reductions required by the 2°C target and those actually undertaken is growing. Thus, climate engineering as an alternative proposition to mitigate climate change is expected to become increasingly relevant and likely to enter the mainstream discourse on climate mitigation within a decade. The term 'climate change mitigation' should be broadened to include all measures that limit the extent of climatic changes. Carbon dioxide removal is akin to classical biological and geological sequestration. Solar radiation management could mask - and thus in the broader sense mitigate - climate change as long as the intervention is continued. Given the high perceived attractiveness of solar radiation management due to costs two orders of magnitude less than those of equivalent emissions reductions, the level of risks must be established with a high degree of certainty, and accompanying measures need be in place, before the option can be seriously contemplated. In order to prevent potentially catastrophic unilateral deployment or military use, international governance is required to coordinate research in all disciplines concerned with climate engineering in the long term and make its results publicly accessible. A Special Report on Climate Engineering by the IPCC would provide an ideal basis for such international norm building concerning research, development and deployment. In order to avoid capture by interest groups and prevent premature irreversible decisions, climate engineering governance and monitoring under the UNFCCC could be based partly on approaches used in nuclear weapons control and terrorism prevention.


Voluntary Support of Scientific Research: A Road to a more Sustainable Future

Author(s): Edvardsen HM, Puškaric S

Published: April, 2012

Publisher: RIThink

Tags: Research

URL: http://rithink.hr/?act=archives

Abstract: This study investigated the awareness about the threats of global warming and the attitude of a random population to actively participate in supporting research and development of novel methods to mitigate the consequences of global warming. The survey includes responses from 195 randomly selected people of various profiles. The study found that the respondents generally consider global warming to be a real problem and a threat to our society and that the governments and corporations are not doing enough to deal with global warming. Respondents felt that they can be responsible consumers and choose green products and services to prevent pollution, and believe there is still time to change our behavior by cutting emissions and pollution levels in order to prevent global warming. Additionally, the study found that a small but significant percentage of respondents considered investing a larger amount of money in a safe project that develops methods to reverse global warming. Finally, the reasons for these attitudes are discussed as well as the possible solution for the problem.


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