Exploring Climate Cooling

Strategic Foresight on Climate and Geopolitics: Toward governance of earth cooling approaches

Project Lead: Matthias Honegger, Centre for Future Generations

Award: £1.25 million over 17 months

Key team members and approximate budget breakdown: Matthias Honegger, Cynthia Scharf, Centre for Future Generations (£420k) | Trish Lavery, Australian National University Futures Hub (£150k) | Rafal Kierzenkowski, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (£220k) | Danielle Young, University of Leeds (£460k)

Understanding if and how earth cooling approaches could be responsibly governed is critical in light of accelerating climate impacts and the risk of unwise use. This team will explore how these approaches could be responsibly governed at the global level in various future scenarios. They will start by outlining scenarios variously shaped by growing climate impacts, geopolitical challenges, the need for ongoing mitigation efforts, and the public’s views. Their research will survey existing debates in both academic and policy circles, and discuss with policy makers and civil society organisations the risks, benefits and uncertainties they expect. Based on these scenarios, the project aims to develop foundational governance ideas to help ensure future decisions are socially and scientifically informed.

View the full grant agreement for this project, which outlines its objectives, milestones, and deliverables here.

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How to speak about climate cooling? Co-creating an engagement toolkit in the Arctic and the UK

Award: £360k over 45 months

Key team members and approximate budget breakdown: Ine Steenmans + Chloe Colomer, University College London (£314k) | Cody Skahan, University of Oxford (£23k) | Albert van Wijngaarden, University of Cambridge (£23k)

Emerging climate cooling approaches raise profound ethical and societal questions. Meaningful dialogues are therefore a prerequisite for ensuring that research on, and governance of, these approaches will be just and inclusive. This is especially true in the Arctic, a region where the voices of people who will be amongst the most impacted are often left out of conversations because of ongoing and historical power imbalances. This team will explore how people want to speak about climate cooling, and how they form and change their views over time. It will move beyond social opinion research by co-designing engagement programmes with local communities and rightsholders across the Arctic and in three UK locations. Beyond the aim of empowering communities to participate more fully in governance, research, and decision-making around these new scientific approaches for cooling the earth, the learnings from these engagements will be captured in a practical, open access toolkit that can be used for future engagement projects around climate cooling.

View the full grant agreement for this project, which outlines its objectives, milestones, and deliverables here. 

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Evidence-based Assessments to Guide Perceptions, Governance, and Ethical Frameworks for South Asia: Comparing marine cloud brightening strategies vis-à-vis carbon dioxide removal and mitigation efforts

Project Lead: Athar Hussain, COMSATS University

Award: £574k over 3 years

Key team members and approximate budget breakdown: Athar Hussain, COMSATS University (£532k) | Thomas Fischer, University of Liverpool (£5k) | Sajida Kousar, International Islamic University (£8k) | Hassaan Sipra, The Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering (£9k) | Muhammad Mumtaz, Fatima Jinnah Women University (£20k)

This project provides a comparative analysis of potential climate response pathways – evaluating the implications in South Asia of marine cloud brightening (MCB) against carbon dioxide removal efforts and conventional mitigation approaches. This analysis combines climate science, governance research, direct stakeholder engagement, and policy analysis, deepening our understanding of potential climate cooling technologies within the ethical, governance and social context of South Asia. This work will empower decisionmakers and communities in South Asia to develop inclusive, effective, and locally-grounded climate action strategies.

View the full grant agreement for this project, which outlines its objectives, milestones, and deliverables here.

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PULSE Project: Public Understanding, Leadership, and Social Ethics in the governance of earth cooling technologies in communities impacted by volcanic activity in the Philippine context

Project Lead: Lorena Sabino, University of the Philippines Los Baños, College of Forestry and Natural Resources

Award: £148k over 2 years

Key team members and approximate budget breakdown: Lorena Sabino, University of the Philippines Los Baños, College of Forestry and Natural Resources (UPLB-CFNR)

Communities in the Philippines living near volcanoes possess invaluable, real-world experience with atmospheric changes that share similar atmospheric processes to potential climate interventions like stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI). This project centers their unique perspectives, exploring the understanding, ethical viewpoints, and governance concerns surrounding such technologies directly within these communities through focused research. Gathering these insights is crucial for grounding abstract global discussions about SAI in lived reality, and ensuring that the voices of those most vulnerable to both climate change and potential interventions are central to the conversation. This work will help develop ethical, inclusive governance frameworks and foster informed climate leadership in the most affected regions.

View the full grant agreement for this project, which outlines its objectives, milestones, and deliverables here.

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Ethics and Governance of Earth Cooling Research: From concepts to implementation

Project Lead: Ignacio Mastroleo, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) 

Award: £453k over 2 years 

Key team members: Ignacio Mastroleo, Timothy Daly, María Inés Carabajal, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) + Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI)

Researching potential Earth cooling approaches raises profound ethical and societal questions that require careful consideration and robust governance frameworks, especially ensuring diverse global perspectives are included. This project focuses on building research capacity and developing ethical frameworks, particularly within the Global South. This project will build a Latin America/Caribbean-UK research network that will address fundamental questions regarding the governance of these approaches, as well as nurturing a new community of experts in the region. The work will explore societal implications, ethics frameworks for managing trade-offs and the breadth of opinions, co-production of knowledge and regional governance, particularly in the Latin America/Caribbean context.

View the full grant agreement for this project, which outlines its objectives, milestones, and deliverables here.

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