Expert Preparatory Roundtable: Governing Climate-Altering Techniques

As the climate crisis becomes more acute and is felt around the world, global policymakers are increasingly considering a range of climate altering techniques to reduce the risks of continued temperature rises. Two of the most important of these are large-scale carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere (addressing the major human-caused source of climate change) and solar radiation modification (the reflection of sunlight back into space to slow temperature increases on Earth). 

Carbon dioxide removal is already accepted by the IPCC as a necessary aspect of our approach to climate change – the question is how much, and which techniques should be used. Solar radiation modification is less well-known, but as the impossibility of maintaining 1.5 degrees becomes clearer, it is becoming more central to the discussions on mitigation. 

To support HLAB’s ongoing discussions for improving global governance in key areas, this roundtable offered a deeper understanding of the implications of climate altering techniques, and a range of potential recommendations for developing a related governance framework. The event was one in a series of expert consultations that the UN University Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR) is holding in support of the HLAB and was organized with the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G).