Geoengineering: the New Global Governance Conundrum

“Controlling the climate with technology was once the stuff of science fiction. But with tests already underway, there’s an urgent need for global governance of geoengineering,” writes Mason Inman in Nature Reports, the online resource for the prominent international journal on science and the environment Nature. Geoengineering – from pumping sulphate aerosols into the sky to spraying saltwater above the oceans – offers the promise of cooling the planet by several degrees and is becoming a necessary Plan B  for dealing with climate change in the case of failure of mitigation or adaptation initiatives.  However, geoengineering also carries a high likelihood  of unintended consequences from drought to ozone depletion. Since action can be unilateral – i.e. any one nation can deploy technologies that might alter the climate at a global scale, the  legal and ethical dimensions create an unparalleled  legislative and governance conundrum.  “Geoengineering is the most serious governance concern that we’re going to be facing in the next couple of decades,” argues Maria Ivanova, director of the Global Environmental Governance Project. “It’s really about planetary survival.” Read the Nature Reports article here. Or follow Mason Inman’s blog, Failing Gracefully, here.

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