C2GLearn
Governance of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection
This topic aims to present a detailed overview of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) to an audience interested in understanding the basic principles of SAI, as well as the potential benefits and risks associated with this Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) approach and the underlying governance issues associated with SAI. It seeks to answer the following questions:
- What is SAI and what role could it play in managing climate risk?
- What do we know about the potential risks and benefits associated with this approach?
- What do we know about research, readiness, potential and cost of SAI?
- How do we make an informed decision whether or not we should consider developing or deploying SAI?
- What are some of the potential geopolitical and security implications of SAI?
- What are some of the governance considerations around SAI (whether it is deployed or not)?
- How might some of the governance challenges be considered or addressed in the context of current governance processes and mechanisms?
Webinars
This Webinar features three ten-minute expert overviews on the governance of SAI. It is followed by a forty-five minute moderated Q&A session, during which audience members are invited to submit written questions via the Zoom chat. Speakers include:
Arunabha Ghosh / India
Dr Arunabha Ghosh is a public policy professional, adviser, author, columnist, and institution builder. As the founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, since 2010, he has led CEEW to the top ranks as one of Asia’s leading policy research institutions (seven years in a row); and among the world’s 20 best climate think-tanks in 2013 and 2016. He has been actively involved in the design of the International Solar Alliance since inception. He conceptualised and is a founding board member of the Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN). With experience in 45 countries, he previously worked at Princeton, Oxford, UNDP (New York), and WTO (Geneva). In 2018, the UN Secretary-General nominated him to the UN’s Committee for Development Policy. In 2020, the Government of India appointed him Co-Chair of the energy, environment and climate change track for India’s forthcoming Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP2020). His 2019 TED Talk on air quality (Mission 80-80-80) crossed 100,000 views within three weeks of release. He is one of six members of an international high-level panel of the Environment of Peace initiative.
He is lead author of Jobs, Growth and Sustainability: A New Social Contract for India’s Recovery (CEEW, 2020). He is the co-author/editor of four books: The Palgrave Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy (2016); Energizing India: Towards a Resilient and Equitable Energy System (SAGE, 2016); Human Development and Global Institutions (Routledge, 2016); and Climate Change: A Risk Assessment (FCO, 2015). Arunabha’s essay “Rethink India’s energy strategy” in Nature was selected as one of 2015’s ten most influential essays.
Arunabha advises governments, industry, civil society and international organisations around the world. This has included India’s Prime Minister’s Office, several ministries and state governments. He was invited by France, as a Personnalité d’Avenir, to advise on the COP21 climate negotiations; and also advised extensively on HFC negotiations. He served on the Executive Committee of the India-U.S. PACEsetter Fund. He has been a member of Track II dialogues with ten countries/regions; and formulated the Maharashtra-Guangdong Partnership on Sustainability. He is a member of the Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority for the National Capital Region.
His monthly columns in the Business Standard (Inflexion Points) and the Hindustan Times (Over The Horizon) are widely read. He has hosted a documentary on water in Africa, featured in National Geographic and Discovery Channel documentaries on energy, and delivered a TED Talk on air quality. He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, member of WEF’s Global Future Council on Energy, and an Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader. He holds a D.Phil. from Oxford and topped Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.
Douglas MacMartin / United States of America
Douglas MacMartin is a Senior Research Fellow in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. His research focuses on climate engineering (also known as solar geoengineering or climate intervention) with the aim of helping to develop the knowledge base necessary to support informed future societal decisions in this challenging and controversial field. He has published extensively on the subject, and in addition to public and academic presentations has provided briefings to the UN Environment Program and testimony to the US Congress, and is a member of a US National Academies panel that will make recommendations on both research and governance. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 1992; previous positions include United Technologies Research Center (1994-2000) and the California Institute of Technology (2000-2015). His research is funded by NSF and by the Cornell University Atkinson Center.
Ina Möller / Germany
Dr. Ina Möller is a political scientist, working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Environmental Policy Group of Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Her interests include climate change policy, global environmental governance and the science-policy interface. In her research, she focuses on the politics of introducing climate geoengineering as additional/alternative methods to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and on the role of transparency in international climate governance.
Ina has published scientific articles and book chapters with leading journals and publishers, including Global Environmental Politics, Environmental Politics and Cambridge University Press. She is a research fellow of the Earth System Governance network, where she volunteers as co-editor of the network’s early career newsletter and contributes to the network’s working group on new technologies.
Ina has a PhD in Political Science and an MSc in Environmental Studies from Lund University in Sweden, as well as BA in Political Science and Public Administration from Konstanz University in Germany. She has worked as a research assistant for the International Project Office of the Earth System Governance network and for the Policy and Partnership Office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Brussels.
Ina is interested in collaborating with both scientific and public policy partners on questions related to climate geoengineering and global climate governance in general.
Moderator: Paul Rouse / United Kingdom
Paul Rouse is Science Advisor for C2G. Rouse spent over 20 years designing and delivering interdisciplinary research programmes that produce policy evidence and impact within UK research councils. During this time, he headed up environmental, energy and food security agenda for the Economic & Social Research Council, including thinking on geoengineering research and engagement activity with the SPICE initiative. Rouse left the science policy community to undertake a PhD, at the University of Southampton, on the governance of geoengineering, which he completed in 2018.
Rouse has a record of accomplishment in taking research evidence into the government policy arena, advising key actors on a wide range of issues from climate change adaptation and geoengineering, to enhancing STEM skills within schools. Internationally, he worked with the Belmont Forum, Future Earth and was an EU Framework Programme National Contact.
Most recently, Rouse has been working with the UK Research & Innovation, taking a particular interest in enhancing ethical thinking and responsible innovation approaches within engineering.
He has postgraduate and professional qualifications and a MA and PhD. Rouse is a Visiting Fellow in Politics and International Relations at the University of Southampton and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Introduction
Presentations
Slide presentations
- Douglas MacMartin Situating Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) in the broader conversation on Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) [pdf]
- Arunabha Ghosh Governance of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection: Potential benefits, risks, and unknowns [pdf]
- Ina Möller Governance of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection [pdf]
Q&A (Webinar 1)
Q&A (Webinar 2)
Campfire Chat
This Campfire Chat aimed to provide insights into diverse viewpoints on the governance of SAI (presented in the webinar above), in a relatively informal, moderated, semi-structured discussion between experts. Audience members were invited to suggest topics via the Zoom chat. Guests included:
Ana Maria Kleymeyer / Argentina & United States America
Ana Maria Kleymeyer is an International Law and Policy Advisor. She earned a Juris Doctor (magna cum laude) from the American University Washington College of Law, a Diplome from the lnstitut Universitaire d’Etudes du Developpement in Geneva, a Bachelor of Arts (University Honors) from the Wesleyan University, and participated in a year exchange program at the Universite de Paris VII. Ms. Kleymeyer is member of the New York State Bar Association, a Certified Mediator, American University Judicial Affairs and Mediation Services and has an International Negotiation Certification from the Center for Advanced Studies in International Negotiation.
She was a Senior Adviser at International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, providing independent consultancy for governments, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations in the areas of environmental policy development and implementation. She was Chief International Advisor to the Secretary and Head of the Office of international Affairs of the Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina, Senior Advisor and Counsellor to the Secretary of State for Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina, Legal Consultant at the World Bank Institute for the Water and Environmental Governance Programs, Legal Fellow at the International Network for Compliance and Enforcement (INECE), Dean’s Fellow Legal Research Assistant, Washington College of Law, Legal Research Assistant for the NKL Law Group, and Program Officer at the Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano (FFLA) in Ecuador.
Ms Kleymeyer was awarded with the United States Environmental Protection Agency Ozone Award for Climate Protection in 2008 and her international expertise has been recognised by the Montreal Protocol Who’s Who (2008). She is a citizen of the United States America.
Andy Parker / United Kingdom
Andy has been the main architect of the Solar Radiation Modification Governance Initiative (SRMGI) since its launch in 2010, responsible for the focus on the Global South, the programme of engagement workshops, and the creation of the DECIMALS Fund. His background is in climate policy and he began working on geoengineering in 2008 when he led the production of the Royal Society’s Geoengineering the climate report. He then moved into academia to research SRM governance at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam. Andy was a member of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s expert working group on geoengineering and is currently an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, UK.
Oliver Morton / United Kingdom
Oliver Morton is The Economist’s briefings editor. Before coming to The Economist as energy and environment editor in 2009, he was the chief news and features editor of Nature, the international scientific journal. He specialises in the energy business, climate science and policy, and other green issues. In 2016, his book The Planet Remade was shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize. He is the author of Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet, a study of photosynthesis, its meanings and its implications, and Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination and the Birth of a World.
Moderator: Janos Pasztor / Hungary & Switzerland
Janos Pasztor (a Hungarian and a Swiss citizen) is Senior Fellow of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and is Executive Director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G).
He has four decades of work experience in the areas of energy, environment, climate change, and sustainable development. Before taking up his current assignment he was UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change in New York under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Earlier, he was Acting Executive Director for Conservation (2014), and Policy and Science Director (2012-2014), at WWF International. He directed the UNSG’s Climate Change Support Team (2008-2010) and later was Executive Secretary of the UNSG’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (2010-2012). In 2007 he directed the Geneva-based UN Environment Management Group (EMG). During 1993-2006 he worked and over time held many responsibilities at the Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC), initially in Geneva and later in Bonn.
His other assignments included: the Secretariat of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit ’92); Stockholm Environment Institute; United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Secretariat of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission); the Beijer Institute; and the World Council of Churches.
He has BSc and MSc degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
C2G strives to achieve a diversity of views and backgrounds across all its events. To that end, it is always open to feedback and suggestions regarding future participants and topics, to ensure a range of perspectives by sector, gender, race, geography, age and other dimensions. It will not always achieve the necessary diversity in all circumstances due to issues of availability and familiarity, but aims over time to expand the range of contributors able to address its issues, subject to the broad principles outlined in its mission statement.
