Engineering our Climate – Stakeholders’ perception of solar geoengineering deployment and governance risks - Thesis

[Geoengineering News]

https://nmbu.brage.unit.no/nmbu-xmlui/handle/11250/3205726

Authors

Sreekumar, Devaprasad

2025

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most important concerns faced by the world today, and discussions and debates regarding mitigating the adverse effects of climate change are going on worldwide. Mitigation and adaptation alone are not enough to reduce the temperature rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius, and alternative discussions for using climate engineering as an option to tackle the adverse effects of climate change are coming forward. This thesis analyses the various climate engineering options and how they are relevant in the discussion of tackling climate change. The main objective of this paper will be to identify and discuss various climate engineering concepts, find how climate policies are constructed and deployed, identify major risks and concerns associated with climate engineering, identify the reasons for the delay in climate engineering research and deployment with a focus given on solar geoengineering, and give some future suggestions for the adaptation of climate engineering technologies to mitigate the effects of climate change. All these objectives will help me to find out what are the major concerns associated with solar geoengineering and how different stakeholders perceive the risks associated with the deployment and governance of solar radiation modification. Many efforts are going on to consider solar radiation modification as a climate option and to initiate a research framework for the deployment of the technology. But most of the associated technologies are still in discussion, and a great deal of uncertainty follows the technology due to a lack of governance and research.

Source: Norwegian University of Life Sciences