The Politics of Geoengineering: Perspectives from the Social Sciences - Book
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Jan 31, 2026, 6:24:56 AM (10 days ago) Jan 31
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https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-10095-5_4
28 January 2026
About this book
This book offers the first comprehensive social science perspective on geoengineering—technologies that deliberately intervene in Earth’s systems to counter climate change. It examines the political, legal, economic, and societal dimensions of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and Solar Radiation Modification (SRM), combining SWOT analyses with regional perspectives from Africa and the Asia-Pacific.
Contributors illuminate the urgent governance, ethical, and geopolitical challenges that arise when states and societies confront the “risk versus risk” dilemma: unchecked climate change versus potentially disruptive interventions.
Offering clear insights into emerging regulatory debates and global power dynamics, the volume provides scholars, policymakers, and practitioners with tools to engage in informed and responsible decision-making.
A timely guide to one of the 21st century’s most controversial climate strategies, it helps readers navigate the politics of turning Earth’s thermostat down.
CHAPTERS
Chapter 01: Geoengineering has shifted from theory to contested policy, with technology outpacing governance. The analysis highlights political, legal, economic, and justice dimensions and calls for urgent global oversight.
Chapter 2 examines Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) as geoengineering, analyzing CO2 extraction, storage, and conversion, with SWOT insights on techniques and implications for sustainable climate action.
Chapter 3 explores Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) to reflect sunlight and curb warming, analyzing stratospheric, space-based, and ground methods with a SWOT assessment of their potential.
Chapter 4 covers CDR and SRM as climate interventions, highlighting their costs, risks, and governance challenges, and stresses that international cooperation is key to their safe and effective deployment.
Chapter 5 reviews solar geoengineering research and governance in the Asia-Pacific, highlighting North-South disparities, public perceptions, and the need for inclusive, globally coordinated discussions.
Chapter 6 examines CDR in Africa, assessing its climate potential, human rights risks, and how the African Union’s legal framework could guide safe, rights-based geoengineering.
Chapter 7 explores geoengineering’s role in protecting biodiversity, highlighting risks of CDR and SRM, potential ecological impacts, and the need for strong governance to safeguard ecosystems and climate goals.
Chapter 8 covers international law’s role in geoengineering governance, highlighting the need for harmonized, multilateral standards, inclusive frameworks, and science-based legal solutions for effective oversight.
Chapter 9 explores links between solar geoengineering and ecocide law, arguing that ecocide frameworks, combined with polycentric governance, could guide legal oversight and protect the global commons.
Chapter 10 examines space-based geoengineering as a potential climate solution, highlighting the need for careful legal regulation under the Outer Space Treaty and possible updates to international space law.
Chapter 11 highlights the uncertain future of geoengineering, emphasizing the urgent need for anticipatory, agile governance grounded in shared human values to guide research, deployment, and global cooperation.
Chapter 12 explores public engagement with geoengineering, highlighting challenges, trends, and empirical insights from Portugal, and calls for institutionalized participation, a People’s Charter, and serious policymaker attention.
Chapter 13 uses science fiction to explore terraforming, examining how novels like Robinson’s Mars trilogy and Weir’s Artemis highlight decision-making, governance, corporate influence, and identity in interplanetary colonization.
Source: Springer Nature Link
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