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SGRP Newsletter July 2019
Director’s note
Dear Readers,
This is the occasional newsletter of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program (SGRP), which supports research at Harvard on the science, technology, and governance of solar geoengineering.
First, I’m delighted to announce that Gernot Wagner has started a new position as an associate professor at New York University’s Department of Environmental Studies and Wagner School of Public Service. He will be a terrific addition to the university. We wish him all the best.
Similarly, Peter Irvine, whom we were lucky to have as a postdoctoral fellow in my group, is moving on to a lectureship at University College London. Gernot’s and Peter’s hires add to the cohort of young scholars who work on solar geoengineering, including most recently, Ben Kravitz at Indiana University, and earlier, Juan Moreno Cruz at Waterloo and Kate Rickie at UC Irvine.
Second, I’m excited to announce that Lizzie Burns has assumed Gernot’s role as Managing Director of SGRP. Lizzie is carrying out two jobs. As SGRP director, she works with me and the SGRP committee to develop and implement the program strategy, manage fellowships, grants, and meetings at Harvard, and direct external communications and policy work on Capitol Hill. At the same time, she reports to Frank Keutsch managing the SCoPEx advisory committee process.
Third, I’m glad to announce the establishment of the independent governance committee for the SCoPEx experiment. Details are below. This has been a long but important process. Frank Keutsch and I are grateful for Lizzie’s extraordinary skill and effort in working with various offices at Harvard and with Louise Bedsworth (the Chair) to get us here.
Also, we are always accepting applications for our residency and visiting scholar programs, when stellar candidates in any discipline can spend a few weeks at Harvard. This fall, we are hosting several DECIMALS researchers as part of our residency. We very much appreciate the time they are taking to visit our campus to share their research and collaborate on projects. You are welcome to apply to the residency or visiting scholars program anytime.
To learn more about our residency program, visiting scholar program, fellowship program, goals, team, publications, events, projects, faculty grants, and other ways to get involved, you can visit our website.
Lastly, please feel free to tell us what you would find useful to learn from this newsletter. You can opt out at any time by unsubscribing here, or through the link at the bottom of the email.
Yours,
David Keith
Faculty Director, Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program
News
Harvard Establishes SCoPEx Advisory Committee
The Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx) is a proposed small-scale experiment involving a balloon flight to help advance understanding of stratospheric aerosols that could be relevant to solar geoengineering.
Recognizing the complex societal and governance issues surrounding solar geoengineering, Harvard has ensured the SCoPEx project has the guidance of an independent Advisory Committee and has recently appointed members.
To select the membership, Harvard followed external advice provided by an independent Search Committee.
Chaired by Louise Bedsworth, Executive Director of California’s Strategic Growth Council, the Advisory Committee will provide the university and SCoPEx scientists with advice on environmental health and safety, research, and governance. It will address scientific review, standards for transparency, risk management, and stakeholder engagement, among other aspects. The committee will also ensure that we share our findings and “governance lessons learned” with diverse stakeholders, including other scientists and policymakers.
Richard McCullough, Harvard Vice Provost for Research, said, “This work fits with Harvard’s mission to explore the physical world in ways that benefit humankind. Basic research on solar geoengineering is critical, and it is essential that we serve as an exemplar of research governance in this emerging field. An independent Advisory Committee, combined with the experience and leadership of the SCoPEx project members, will help us achieve this goal. We are grateful to all those who have contributed to this effort.”
You can learn more about the Advisory Committee membership by reading this recent press release, by visiting our governance FAQ, and by viewing Louise's statement.
Geoengineering Modeling Research Consortium
This summer marks the formal launch of the Geoengineering Modeling Research Consortium. The consortium will identify and prioritize critical research gaps in climate modeling with specific significance to geoengineering, and coordinate amongst U.S. researchers to close those gaps through collaborative model assessment and development efforts. We are proud to be a part of the consortia which we expect will play an essential role in advancing the community’s understanding of the potential risks and benefits of solar geoengineering. SGRP will host the second meeting of the consortia on September 30, 2019.
Harvard will Host DECIMALS Researchers in Residency Program
The DECIMALS Fund (Developing Country Impacts Modelling Analysis for Solar Radiation Management) is an international research fund designed to engage climate experts from the Global South on the topic of solar geoengineering. In September 2019, SGRP will host several DECIMALS researchers as part of its residency program. This will enable the DECIMALS and Harvard researchers to collaborate on projects and share ideas amongst each other. It will also give the DECIMALS researchers the opportunity to learn more about other important solar geoengineering research taking place. By enabling and deepening the collaborations between DECIMALS and Harvard researchers, our residency program aims to enhance international dialogue and research around solar geoengineering.
Identifying Research Priorities for a Solar Geoengineering Research Agenda
In December 2018, we co-hosted the event, “Identifying Research Priorities for a Solar Geoengineering Research Agenda,” in Washington, DC. Organized by Harvard researchers Frank Keutsch, Dustin Tingley, Peter Irvine, Lizzie Burns, and myself, Cornell researcher, Douglas MacMartin, and Carnegie Institution for Science researcher, Ken Caldeira, this project aimed to identify views about research priorities for solar geoengineering through a survey of, and discussion with, experts in the field. It identified which solar geoengineering technologies, areas of research, and specific research proposals are of high priority to the research community and where there are differences of opinion amongst the researchers. Moreover, it will support the development of international solar geoengineering research. For example, the National Academy of Sciences has formed a committee to develop a research agenda and research governance approaches for solar geoengineering. We hope the outcomes of the survey and discussion, which will soon be synthesized in a white paper and possibly additional publications, will be valuable to a range of audiences, including the National Academy of Sciences. A draft paper is available from Peter Irvine.
Sixth International Geoengineering Summer school
We are happy to see the geoengineering summer schools restart after a several-year hiatus. This Sixth International Geoengineering Governance Summer School will run in Banff, Alberta during the first week of August. It’s led by Ted Parson of UCLA and supported by SGRP.
Harvard Seminars
Our Spring 2019 seminar series was a great success thanks to the many terrific speakers who shared their expertise with participants. We would like to thank our speakers:
- Timo Goeschl, Heidelberg University
- Olivier Boucher, Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL)
- Maria Ivanova, University of Massachusetts, Boston
- Mike Hulme, University of Cambridge
- Mark Lawrence, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam
- Forrest Clingerman, Ohio Northern University
- Ray Pierrehumbert, University of Oxford
- Ken Caldeira, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford
Seminars are open to the public and will resume at Harvard this fall.
Opportunities
Apply to be the Executive Coordinator for the SCoPEx Advisory Committee
We are hiring a new staff member to support the important work of the SCoPEx Advisory Committee. Please email Lizzie Burns if you are interested in learning more about this terrific full-time opportunity. Interviews will begin in late August 2019.
Apply to be a Resident or Visiting Scholar
SGRP invites researchers to apply to its residency and visiting scholar programs. Both programs will accept a small number of researchers focused on solar geoengineering to spend several weeks at Harvard, working directly with researchers at SGRP and other members of the Harvard community.
Funding Opportunity for Fall 2020 Solar Geoengineering Research Post- & Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
SGRP funds pre- and post-doctoral fellows working under the guidance of a Harvard faculty sponsor. We are looking for stellar candidates in any discipline to spend 1 or 2 years at Harvard beginning the fall of 2020. No formal experience working on solar geoengineering required! The application process is currently closed, but we will begin accepting applications for September 2020 fellowships this fall, due January 2020.
Publications since November 2018
Academic Publications and Reports
Dagon, Katherine, and Daniel Schrag. “Quantifying the effects of solar geoengineering on vegetation.” Climatic Change 153 (2019): 235-251.
Stavins, Robert, and Robert Stowe (Eds.) “Governance of the Deployment of Solar Geoengineering.” Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (2019).
Vattioni, Sandro, Debra Weisenstein, David Keith, Aryeh Feinberg, Thomas Peter, and Andrea Stenke. “Exploring accumulation-mode H2SO4 versus SO2 stratospheric sulfate geoengineering in a sectional aerosol–chemistry–climate model.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 19 (2019).
Keith, David, and Joshua Horton. “Multilateral parametric climate risk insurance: a tool to facilitate agreement about deployment of solar geoengineering?” Climate Policy (2019).
Heyen, Daniel, Joshua Horton, and Juan Moreno-Cruz. “Strategic implications of counter-geoengineering: Clash or cooperation?” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 95 (2019): 153-177.
Irvine, Peter, Kerry Emanuel, Jie He, Larry Horowitz, Gabriel Vecchi, and David Keith. “Halving warming with idealized solar geoengineering moderates key climate hazards.” Nature Climate Change (2019).
Svoboda, Toby, Peter Irvine, Daniel Callies, and Masahiro Sugiyama. “The potential for climate engineering with stratospheric sulfate aerosol injections to reduce climate injustice.” Journal of Global Ethics (2019).
Smith, Wake and Gernot Wagner. "Stratospheric aerosol injection tactics and costs in the first 15 years of deployment." Environmental Research Letters 13 (2018).
Non-Technical Publications
Burns, Lizzie, David Keith, Peter Irvine, and Joshua Horton. “Technology Factsheet Series: Solar Geoengineering.” Technology and Public Purpose Project, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School and CRCS Center for Research on Computation and Society, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (2019).
Keith, David. “FAQ on idealized solar geoengineering moderates key climate hazards.” The Keith Group Blog (2019).
Keith, David. “Let’s Talk About Geoengineering.” Project Syndicate (2019).
The Solar Geoengineering Research Blog
The Solar Geoengineering Research (SGR) Blog was launched in 2018. While hosted on SGRP's website, the SGR Blog is independently managed by an editorial board consisting of Holly Buck, Peter Irvine, Ben Kravitz, Andy Parker, and Gernot Wagner, each representing his or her own personal views. See the welcome post for a description of the blog's mission.
Latest Posts
The Governance of Solar Geoengineering and Human Rights
By Jesse Reynolds
Might Research on Solar Geoengineering Resemble its Broader “Free-Driver” Dynamics?
By Gernot Wagner
Perspectives on the UNEA resolution
Reflections by Olaf Corry, Ina Möller, Joshua Horton, Aarti Gupta, Matthias Honegger, Jesse Reynolds, Sikina Jinnah, and Maria Ivanova
Solar Geoengineering Research Zotero Library
By Lizzie Burns, Amy Chang, Pete Irvine, Nils, Matzner*, Ella Necheles, Jesse Reynolds*, and Gernot Wagner
Does the Fossil Fuel Industry Support Geoengineering?
By Jesse Reynolds
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