Due to the feckless response of the global community in the context of climate policymaking, climate geoengineering, defined as large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment, has emerged as an increasingly viable option among commentators and some policymakers. One of the most widely discussed of these options is solar radiation management (SRM), or efforts to increase atmospheric albedo through techniques such as sulfur particle injection or cloud brightening.
Unfortunately, while such techniques have the potential to avert “climate emergencies,” or to serve as a stopgap measure to buy time for effective emissions mitigation responses, they also pose serious risks. Many commentators have focused on intragenerational risks, such as changes in precipitation patterns, or increases in sulfur dioxide loads in the troposphere. However, SRM approaches may also pose grave threats to future generations should their use ultimately cease without concomitant reductions in greenhouse emissions, termed the so-called “rebound effect.”
This seminar on Climate Geoengineering and the Question of Justice is jointly organized by the Department of Political Science, LUCSUS and the Earth System Governance Project and focuses on the implications of the principle of intergenerational equity in terms of potential deployment of SRM technologies.
Programme
13.15-13.50 Lecture
SRM Climate Geoengineering and the Implications of Intergenerational Equity
Wil Burns, Associate Director, Energy Policy & Climate Program, Johns Hopkins University
13.50-14.20 Commentaries
On the justice and equity dimensions of geoengineering
Andreas Malm, Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability (LUCID)
On the (governance of) research on geoengineering
Ruben Zondervan, Executive Director, Earth System Governance Project
Lennart Olsson, Director, Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) (tbc)
14.20-15.00 Open Discussion
Moderator: Fariborz Zelli, Department of Political Science, Lund University
Venue: Geocentrum I, Sölvegatan 12, Room ’Flygeln’, 1st floor, Lund
