A Data-Driven Approach for Identifying Ethical Concerns of Climate Engineering Technologies - Stratospheric Aerosol Injection as a Use-Case—Preprint

[Geoengineering News]

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5272391

Authors

Julius Fenn, Michael Gorki, Philipp Höfele, Louisa Estadieu, Christophe Becht, Lars Kulbe, Johannes Gekeler, Andrea Kiesel

28 May 2025

Abstract

Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C has intensified interest in climate engineering technologies such as Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), which mimic volcanic cooling. Given potential insufficiency of mitigation alone, ethical examination of SAI is imperative. This study investigates whether laypersons’ ethical reasoning about SAI can be empirically identified. Using a multi-method design, we combined Cognitive-Affective Maps (CAMs) and open-ended textual responses to elicit twenty ethical concerns. Large Language Models (LLMs) synthesized lay perspectives and compared them against formal ethical definitions. Results revealed diverse ethical considerations, including governance, risk, equitable deployment, and emergency use. In contrast to formal definitions, lay participants foregrounded practical implications, social trust, and personal experience. Our findings demonstrate the utility of integrating data sources for empirical ethics research and underscore the complexity of public ethical discourse on SAI. This approach promotes more inclusive, evidence-based dialogue on the responsible development and governance of climate engineering technologies.

Source: SSRN