The changing shape of climate technofixes

[Geoengineering News]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589811626000467

Authors: Sean Low

27 August 2026

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2026.100356

Abstract

How is the ‘climate technofix’ evolving – in light of governance shifts towards Big Tech, sovereignty and security, and faltering multilateralism in the face of systemic climate impacts? There is a structural gap between the current capacities of climate governance for deep decarbonization and livable temperatures in coming decades. That gap is being filled with speculative frontier technologies promoted by many of the same actors worsening the climate crisis. Climate technofixes remain heavily focused on flawed or immature kinds of carbon management. However, through solar geoengineering, artificial intelligence, and the space economy, there is now an amplification of frontier technologies promising high-leverage and transformative change. As these dynamics are emerging in real time, governance must be precautionary, anticipatory and cross-sectoral: it must confront emerging coalitions across frontier technology sectors promising transformative climate solutions while entrenching the carbon economy. This perspective maps these emerging dynamics as a first step to designing governance to address them.

Source: ScienceDirect