Governing Emerging Solar Geoengineering: A Role for Risk-Risk Evaluation?

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https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/913651/summary

Authors 

Duncan McLaren

Citations: McLaren, Duncan. "Governing Emerging Solar Geoengineering: A Role for Risk-Risk Evaluation?" Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, vol. 24 no. 2, 2023, p. 234-243. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/gia.2023.a913651.

30 November 2023

Abstract

In the face of rapid global heating, ideas of solar geoengineering are receiving increased attention. Yet the governance of such risky emerging technologies is poorly explored. Here I examine how the risks involved in solar geoengineering might be assessed in the context of climate risks in two different models of risk management: the technocratic, and the securitized. I show that neither model alone provides a sufficient foundation for a meaningful ‘risk-risk’ assessment, and suggest a need for better defined, yet broad scope, symmetric assessments using worst-case as well as idealised scenarios, taking into account risks in research and development as well as deployment, and considering the social distribution of risks. I conclude that effective anticipatory and ethical risk assessment may usefully supplement, but cannot replace democratic political judgements on responses to climate change.

Source: Georgetown Journal of International Affairs