IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/wirecc/v12y2021i2ne690.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is solar geoengineering ungovernable? A critical assessment of governance challenges identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Author

Listed:
  • Jesse L. Reynolds

Abstract

Solar radiation modification (SRM) could greatly reduce climate change and associated risks. Yet it has not been well‐received by the climate change expert community. This is evident in the authoritative reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which emphasize SRM's governance, political, social, and ethical challenges. I find seven such challenges identified in the IPCC reports: that SRM could lessen mitigation; that its termination would cause severe climatic impacts; that researching SRM would create a “slippery slope” to its inevitable and unwanted use; that decisions to use it could be contrary to democratic norms; that the public may not accept SRM; that it could be unethical; and that decisions to use SRM could be unilateral. After assessing the extent to which these challenges are supported by existing evidence, scholarly literature, and robust logic, I conclude that, for six of the seven, the IPCC's claims variously are speculative, fail to consider both advantages and disadvantages, implicitly make unreasonable negative assumptions, are contrary to existing evidence, and/or are meaninglessly vague. I suggest some reasons for the reports' failure to meet the IPCC's standards of balance, thoroughness, and accuracy, and recommend a dedicated Special Report on SRM. This article is categorized under: Integrated Assessment of Climate Change > Assessing Climate Change in the Context of Other Issues

Suggested Citation

  • Jesse L. Reynolds, 2021. "Is solar geoengineering ungovernable? A critical assessment of governance challenges identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(2), March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:wirecc:v:12:y:2021:i:2:n:e690
    DOI: 10.1002/wcc.690
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.690
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/wcc.690?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Quaas, Martin F. & Quaas, Johannes & Rickels, Wilfried & Boucher, Olivier, 2017. "Are there reasons against open-ended research into solar radiation management? A model of intergenerational decision-making under uncertainty," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 1-17.
    2. Shinichiro Asayama & Rob Bellamy & Oliver Geden & Warren Pearce & Mike Hulme, 2019. "Why setting a climate deadline is dangerous," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(8), pages 570-572, August.
    3. Daniel P. Carlisle & Pamela M. Feetham & Malcolm J. Wright & Damon A. H. Teagle, 2020. "The public remain uninformed and wary of climate engineering," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 303-322, May.
    4. Anthony R. Harding & Katharine Ricke & Daniel Heyen & Douglas G. MacMartin & Juan Moreno-Cruz, 2020. "Climate econometric models indicate solar geoengineering would reduce inter-country income inequality," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Joshua B. Horton & Jesse L. Reynolds & Holly Jean Buck & Daniel Callies & Stefan Schäfer & David W. Keith & Steve Rayner, 2018. "Solar Geoengineering and Democracy," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 18(3), pages 5-24, August.
    6. Astrid Dannenberg & Sonja Zitzelsberger, 2019. "Climate experts’ views on geoengineering depend on their beliefs about climate change impacts," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(10), pages 769-775, October.
    7. Minx, Jan C. & Callaghan, Max & Lamb, William F. & Garard, Jennifer & Edenhofer, Ottmar, 2017. "Learning about climate change solutions in the IPCC and beyond," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 252-259.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Toby Bolsen & Risa Palm & Russell E. Luke, 2023. "Public response to solar geoengineering: how media frames about stratospheric aerosol injection affect opinions," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(8), pages 1-21, August.
    2. Chad M. Baum & Livia Fritz & Sean Low & Benjamin K. Sovacool, 2024. "Public perceptions and support of climate intervention technologies across the Global North and Global South," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Lea Berrang‐Ford & Friederike Döbbe & Ruth Garside & Neal Haddaway & William F. Lamb & Jan C. Minx & Wolfgang Viechtbauer & Vivian Welch & Howard White, 2020. "Editorial: Evidence synthesis for accelerated learning on climate solutions," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.
    4. Hänsel, Martin C. & Quaas, Martin F., 2018. "Intertemporal Distribution, Sufficiency, and the Social Cost of Carbon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 520-535.
    5. Mahmud, M. A. Parvez & Huda, Nazmul & Farjana, Shahjadi Hisan & Lang, Candace, 2019. "A strategic impact assessment of hydropower plants in alpine and non-alpine areas of Europe," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 198-214.
    6. Neal R. Haddaway & Max W. Callaghan & Alexandra M. Collins & William F. Lamb & Jan C. Minx & James Thomas & Denny John, 2020. "On the use of computer‐assistance to facilitate systematic mapping," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.
    7. Galadima, Ahmad & Muraza, Oki, 2019. "Catalytic thermal conversion of CO2 into fuels: Perspective and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    8. Bos, Björn & Drupp, Moritz & Meya, Jasper & Quaas, Martin, 2021. "The Commons Problem under Uncertainty and Precaution," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242471, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Ahlvik, Lassi & Iho, Antti, 2018. "Optimal geoengineering experiments," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 148-168.
    10. Chandni Singh & James Ford & Debora Ley & Amir Bazaz & Aromar Revi, 2020. "Assessing the feasibility of adaptation options: methodological advancements and directions for climate adaptation research and practice," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 255-277, September.
    11. Forsyth, Tim, 2021. "Time to change? Technologies of futuring and transformative change in Nepal’s climate change policy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107544, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Adrien Fabre & Gernot Wagner, 2020. "Availability of risky geoengineering can make an ambitious climate mitigation agreement more likely," Post-Print halshs-04363061, HAL.
    13. Shinichiro Asayama, 2021. "Threshold, budget and deadline: beyond the discourse of climate scarcity and control," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 1-16, August.
    14. Binbin Yang & Sang-Do Park, 2023. "Who Drives Carbon Neutrality in China? Text Mining and Network Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-24, March.
    15. Marcel Lumkowsky & Emily K. Carlton & David G. Victor & Astrid Dannenberg, 2023. "Determining the willingness to link climate and trade policy," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(10), pages 1-24, October.
    16. Mahmud, M.A. Parvez & Huda, Nazmul & Farjana, Shahjadi Hisan & Lang, Candace, 2020. "Life-cycle impact assessment of renewable electricity generation systems in the United States," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 1028-1045.
    17. Fabien Prieur & Ingmar Schumacher & Martin Quaas, 2019. "Mitigation strategies under the threat of solar radiation management," Working Papers hal-04141891, HAL.
    18. Javier Gonzales-Iwanciw & Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen & Art Dewulf, 2023. "How does the UNFCCC enable multi-level learning for the governance of adaptation?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-25, March.
    19. Riccardo Ghidoni & Anna Lou Abatayo & Valentina Bosetti & Marco Casari & Massimo Tavoni, 2023. "Governing Climate Geoengineering: Side Payments Are Not Enough," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(5), pages 1149-1177.
    20. Melanie Dunger & Janina Kraus, 2024. "Bridging Individual Behavior and Technological Solutions in Climate Change Mitigation," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2401, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:wirecc:v:12:y:2021:i:2:n:e690. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1757-7799 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.