Geoengineering governance

This page brings together work on the governance and regulation of solar geoengineering research and deployment.

The challenges of governing geoengineering were one theme in my PhD research. More recently, in the ISPACE project we considered the implications of geopolitics for geoengineering development and governance.

In 2021 I collaborated with fellow CSSN scholars Jennie Stephens, Kevin Surprise and Prakash Kashwan in assessing the proposals for solar geoengineering research advocated by the US National Academies  ('Reflecting Sunlight'), generating a short Letter in Science, and a longer perspective article in Environmental Politics. 

In 2022 I became one of the 'First Signatories' to an academic call for a 'Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering'.

In 2024 I helped the American Geophysical Union draft an 'ethical framework for climate intervention research'.

Publications

An Ethical Framework for Climate Intervention Research. Duncan McLaren, Legal Planet blogpost, Oct 2024

Should there be a non-use agreement on solar geoengineering. Duncan McLaren, Legal Planet blogpost, Feb 2023 

The Danger of Mainstreaming Solar Geoengineering: A Critique of the National Academies Report. Jennie Stephens, Prakash Kashwan, Duncan McLaren & Kevin Surprise (2021). Environmental Politics. 

Letter: The risks of solar geoengineering research. Jennie Stephens, Prakash Kashwan, Duncan McLaren & Kevin Surprise (2021). Science 372.

The Politics and Governance of Research into Solar Geoengineering, Duncan McLaren and Olaf Corry, WIRES Climate Change, 2021.

CSSN Position Paper 2021:2 Solar Geoengineering Research in the United States: Key Critical Questions. P. Kashwan, D. McLaren, J. Stephens, K. Surprise, CSSN.