Many techniques and technologies fall under the umbrella of geoengineering, but the area is broadly split into two categories: those that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere such as sequestering and locking carbon dioxide in geological formations (Carbon Dioxide Removal, or CDR); and those that reflect solar radiation (Solar Radiation Management, or SRM). Techniques in this category include the injection of sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere to mimic the cooling effect caused by large volcanic eruptions.

The UK Committee outlines three reasons why regulation is needed:

• Future geoengineering techniques may allow a single country unilaterally to affect the climate of the Earth.

• Small-scale geoengineering testing is already underway.

• Geoengineering as a “Plan B” may be required if “Plan A”—the reduction of greenhouse gases—fails.

We are not calling for an international treaty but for the groundwork for regulatory arrangements to begin. Geoengineering techniques should be graded with consideration to factors such as trans-boundary effect, the dispersal of potentially hazardous materials in the environment and the direct effect on ecosystems. The regulatory regimes for geoengineering should then be tailored accordingly. The controls should be based on a set of principles that command widespread agreement—for example, the disclosure of geoengineering research and open publication of results and the development of governance arrangements before the deployment of geoengineering techniques.

—“The Regulation of Geoengineering”

Starting work now provides the opportunity to explore fully the technological, environmental, political and regulatory issues. The Committee recommends the grading of geoengineering techniques and that regulatory regimes should then be tailored accordingly, with controls based on a set of widely-agreed principles.

This inquiry was part of a collaboration with the US House of Representatives Science and Technology Committee. In its report the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee commends to its successor committee international collaboration as an innovative way to meet future global challenges.

Geoengineering could affect the entire planet and it would be foolish to ignore its potential to minimize or reverse human caused climate change. There is no sound reason not to begin the groundwork for regulatory arrangements immediately. I particularly welcome the solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative that the Royal Society announced today.

—Chairman of the Committee, Phil Willis MP

Royal Society on SRM Governance. The UK’s Royal Society will undertake a major new initiative to ensure strict governance of any plans for solar radiation management (SRM) geoengineering (counteracting global warming by reflecting a small percentage of the sun’s light and heat back into space) in partnership with the TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world, and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The first output of the Initiative will be a set of recommendations for the governance of geoengineering research, to be released late in 2010.

Proposed geoengineering techniques that reflect the sun’s light and heat back into space may offer valuable opportunities to reduce global warming, and could do so quite rapidly, but it is likely that their impacts would also affect rainfall, regional weather patterns and ocean currents. These impacts would not be restricted by national boundaries, so actions in one country could have highly significant effects in another, for example by changing rainfall and so affecting agriculture and water supply.

The disappointing outcome of Copenhagen has shown that achieving global agreement to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases is not easy. Some countries or organisations may consider geoengineering methods by which they could deliberately alter our climate. Large scale field trials of some solar radiation management techniques could cause damaging side-effects. It is essential that we consider beforehand what legislative mechanisms and guidelines are needed, to ensure that any research that is undertaken will be done in a highly responsible and controlled manner with full international agreement where necessary.

—Professor John Shepherd FRS (who chaired the Royal Society’s Geoengineering the climate: Science, governance and uncertainty report published in September 2009, earlier post)

Resources

• The Regulation of Geoengineering