Solar Geoengineering
Solar Radiation Modification (SRM), also known as solar geoengineering, is a set of speculative technologies that seek to reflect some incoming sunlight back out into space, to have a cooling effect on the planet.
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​My research explores the complex global governance challenges this speculative and risky technological option poses. Given the highly uncertain, unequally distributed and partially unknowable ecological and political risks posed by SRM, I argue that we need immediate restrictive global governance of SRM, to prevent technological development and future use.
More broadly, I view the prospects of developing planet-altering technologies such as SRM as a dangerous distraction from the actions we urgently need to take to address climate change: To realign our politics to redress entrenched inequalities and foster a just transition away from fossil fuels worldwide.
As such, I call, along with other academics, for governments, the UN and other political actors to agree to an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering.
Image credit: Emily Liang
​Given the unacceptable ecological, geo-political and political risks posed by future development and potential use of SRM, I choose to actively engage in societal debates and developments on this issue.
Since January 2022, I have come together with other like-minded academics to co-initiate an academic initiative calling for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering.
This Call has now been signed by more than 550+ academics from over 65 countries. It urges governments and other political actors to act now to restrict development and potential future use of SRM.