Geoengineering Governance Initiative (C2G2) - Transcript
Andrew Lockley
https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/studio/multimedia/20170216/index.html
Geoengineering Governance Initiative (C2G2)
SIMON NICHOLSON, DOUGLAS MACMARTIN, JANE LONG, PABLO SUAREZ, JENNIFER MORGAN, OLIVER MORTON, JANOS PASZTOR, JOEL H. ROSENTHAL | Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative (C2G2) | FEBRUARY 16, 2017
L to R: Janos Pasztor, Oliver Morton, Pablo Suarez, Jane Long, Doug MacMartin, Simon Nicholson, Jennifer Morgan (onscreen via Skype)
Introduction
JOEL ROSENTHAL: Good morning. I'm Joel Rosenthal, president of the Carnegie Council. I have the privilege of introducing our program this morning.
Today we officially launch the Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative, or as it has affectionately become known as, C2G2. "C2G2" sounds futuristic and scientific, but it also sounds friendly and lovable. We believe that serious and accessible should go together.
Carnegie Council is genuinely excited to be hosting this project. We believe that C2G2 serves a vital purpose: connecting and mobilizing actors from many sectors of society including government, business, civil society, academic research, and the media to look at a new reality, the very real possibilities of engineering the climate.
In a political world that is noisy, fragmented, and polarized we launch C2G2 as a counter-narrative where debate is inclusive, civil, fact-based, and rigorous. The spirit of C2G2 is based on mutual learning in a quest to best serve the common good. Our goal is to generate the best ideas and the most useful resources we can, all in the public interest.
We all have a baseline understanding of the challenge in addressing environmental issues. On the one hand, environmental management is an extremely complex problem—so many variables, so many actors—it is a classic collective problem. On the other hand, it is simple: even if one is skeptical of the direst predictions, surely there is a need to protect clean air, clean water, and diminishing natural habitats.
The ethical dimensions to this challenge are straightforward. How do we achieve a balance between economic development and the preservation of the environment? Do we have the right to alter the human relationship to the natural world? How do we serve as stewards of the planet, ensuring a healthy and vibrant environment for generations to follow?
The human capacity to change nature has accelerated in the last century. The atomic revolution, followed by the discovery of the human genome, has given us the means to remake the world. Now we have new technologies to manage carbon emissions and solar radiation, giving us potentially the means to cool the planet.
What should be the duties and obligations that go along with this power? What should be the limitations and constraints? How should we govern ourselves in managing this power? These are fundamentally ethical concerns, matters of human choice and decision. The stakes are enormous.
We have assembled a team of world-renowned climate experts to take these questions and begin to shape a response that can have significant impact on new public policy. Our team is led by Janos Pasztor, senior fellow for this project. Janos is himself an engineer and a climate policy veteran with years of service at the United Nations and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
I'll let Janos say more about the project and the team that is being assembled. But before I give the floor to Simon Nicholson, our collaborator on this project, I just want to thank Janos publicly for his extraordinary vision and leadership in bringing this project to life.
I would also like to thank the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation for their support, especially its executive director, Irene Krarup, who is here with us this morning. They have a vision for this project that animates all of this work.
I also want to thank the Carnegie Council trustees who are present here this morning, especially our immediate past chairman Robert Shaw. Without the support of our trustees in this organization we wouldn't be here. So thank you to all of you.
I also want to thank all of you for coming and spending part of this day with us. The work of this project will depend on a community of people starting with you, so we very much appreciate your being here this morning for the launch of the project.
With that, I am going to turn it over to Simon Nicholson and our panelists. Thank you again for coming