Exploring Climate Cooling
Backed by £56.8m, this programme will explore whether approaches designed to delay, or avert, climate tipping points could be feasible, scalable, and safe.
Why this programme
Climate change could cause global temperatures to increase by several degrees by the end of the century. There is a real risk that heating already locked-in to the planet could precipitate climate tipping points with serious and irreversible consequences around the world.
While the only sustainable way to reduce the risk of such tipping events is through decarbonisation, the risk of crossing one or more in the near future has driven increased interest in approaches to actively reduce global temperatures in the shorter term.
Yet, there is a dearth of robust data on these approaches, and we have a limited understanding of whether such interventions are scientifically sound, how they might be steered, or the full extent of their potential impacts.
What we’re shooting for
Following a twelve-month engagement process, this programme will begin to explore whether approaches designed to delay, or avert, climate tipping points could be feasible, scalable, and safe.
Our goal: to gather critical missing data and answer fundamental scientific questions on approaches that could help prevent humanity from experiencing climate tipping points.
Documents and links
Additional context for this programme
- Opportunity space: Future Proofing Our Climate and Weather [PDF]
- Programme thesis: Exploring Options for Actively Cooling the Earth [PDF]
- Programme discussion report [PDF]
Applicant resources
- Call for proposals [PDF]
- Programme Oversight + Governance [PDF]
- Concept paper guidelines [PDF]
- Full proposal guidelines [PDF]
- Presentation for potential applicants
- Walkthrough for the application portal [PDF]
- How we select projects [PDF]
- Clarification questions specific to this call
About ARIA funding
If you require accessible documents, please contact clarifications@aria.org.uk
Apply for funding
Deadline for concept papers*: 7 October 2024 [12:00 BST]
This solicitation seeks R&D Creators – individuals and teams that ARIA will fund – to answer the most critical technical and fundamental questions on the practicality, measurability, controllability, and likely side-effects of approaches that might one day be used to actively cool the Earth.
Creators will therefore need to demonstrate how their projects align with this goal and contribute to our broader ambition of developing a strong predict → test → monitor → validate loops for a range of approaches. We expect to fund research across the full range of science and engineering disciplines.
In tandem, we expect to support projects in the social sciences that are of direct relevance to approaches for actively cooling the Earth (including, but by no means limited to, consideration of public perception, potential legal, ethical, regulatory and governance frameworks, ethics, community engagement, and the economic or broader societal impact of those approaches).
Acknowledging this as a complex and ethically-challenging area of research, ARIA will apply a set of governance and management principles in this programme, which are set out in detail in the thesis and the programme oversight and governance document.
We’ve also launched a teaming tool to help potential Creators form teams to collaborate and produce a proposal together. Click below to register.
*Concept papers are designed to make the solicitation process as efficient as possible for applicants. By soliciting short concept papers (no more than three pages), ARIA reviewers are able to gauge the feasibility and relevance of the proposed project and give an initial indication of whether we think a full proposal would be competitive.
Technical information for potential applicants
Meet Mark
Exploring Climate Cooling has been designed and overseen by Programme Director Mark Symes with feedback from the R&D community, as part of the opportunity space Future Proofing Our Climate and Weather.
Mark is an electrochemist with a 15-year career developing sustainable fuels in the drive towards net zero. He joined ARIA from the University of Glasgow, where he is Professor of Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Technology.
