Friday, February 17, 2017: 3:00 PM-4:30 PM

Room 309 (Hynes Convention Center)

Solar geoengineering poses new challenges to current international laws and institutions.

Ted Parson contends that we should start to address these hard challenges. Parson’s research

focuses on international environmental law and policy, the role of science and technology in

public policy, and the political economy of regulation. Parson will discuss the many governance

challenges and opportunities presented by solar geoengineering, and will share initial proposals

for potential paths forward.

Solar Geoengineering: What Role Could It Play in Climate Policy?

Solar Geoengineering: What Role Could It Play in Climate Policy? LINK To Conference: Solar Geoengineering: What Role Could It Play in Climate Policy?
Friday, February 17, 2017: 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
Room 309 (Hynes Convention Center)

Boston, MA
Solar geoengineering, the deliberate injection of aerosols into the stratosphere, seeks to partially

compensate for the climate impacts caused by greenhouse gases by reflecting a small fraction of

sunlight back to space. Solar geoengineering may have an important role as a supplement, not a

substitute, for emissions cuts. This session will describe these potential benefits, and the physical

science involved, as well as the risks, which could include ozone loss, reduced precipitation,

increased diffuse shortwave radiation, perturbations to large-scale atmospheric circulation, and

direct toxicity of the aerosols themselves. Additionally, solar geoengineering poses significant

governance challenges. One major sociopolitical risk is the possibility that the prospect of solar

geoengineering will cause relevant actors to reduce their efforts to cut emissions. Other

challenges are that in seeking a “global thermostat,” researchers and policymakers will have to

confront problematic questions about when and how it should be used, who is entitled to make

implementation decisions, how disputes should be resolved, and how to compensate for real or

perceived damages. As speakers will discuss, there are no obvious answers to any of these

questions, and finding adequate ways to address them will require insights from a broad range of

natural and social sciences.

Organizer:
David Keith, Harvard University
Moderator:
Dan Schrag, Harvard University
Speakers:
David Keith, Harvard University
The Case for Solar Geoengineering Research
Edward (Ted) Parson, University of California, Los Angeles School of Law
The International Governance of Solar Geoengineering
Trude Storelvmo, Yale University
Cirrus Cloud Seeding: A Climate Engineering Mechanism With Reduced Side Effects?