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Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Science and Technology Committee Publisher: The Stationery Office ISBN: 9780215544919 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 120
Book Description
Geoengineering describes activities specifically and deliberately designed to effect a change in the global climate with the aim of minimising or reversing anthropogenic climate change. The Committee gives three reasons why they believe regulation is needed. First, in the future some geoengineering techniques may allow a single country to unilaterally affect the climate. Second, some geoengineering testing is already underway. Third, we may need geoengineering in the event of a failure to reduce greenhouse gases we are faced with highly disruptive climate change. The Committee does not call for an international treaty but for the groundwork for regulatory arrangements to begin. The UN is the route by which, eventually, they envisage the regulatory framework operating but first the UK and other governments need to push geoengineering up the international agenda and get processes moving
Author: Kerryn Brent Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Over the past decade geoengineering has steadily built momentum in academic and policy circles as a potential response to the risk of rapid climate change. Geoengineering has moved from a fringe idea to a serious topic of policy discussion. We argue that there are two reasons for the rise of interest in geoengineering. First, the international negotiations on reducing emissions have so far failed to provide a result that will likely prevent dangerous climate change occurring in coming decades. Second, geoengineering technologies have advanced to a stage where in the near future they might be attractive to countries facing significant climate impacts. Particularly, as geoengineering holds out the possibility of a less costly short-term response to climate change than rapid de-carbonisation of stationary energy and transport systems. However, there are many considerable risks associated with geoengineering, including damage to environmental and social systems. At present, there are no international agreements that specifically regulate the testing and/or use of geoengineering technologies. It is currently possible for one country to unilaterally decide to use geoengineering technology to the detriment of others. This leads us to the conclusion that an international agreement should be urgently established to regulate decisions regarding the testing and use of geoengineering. Australia, as a country which is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, should prepare to participate in initiatives in this regard in order to protect our interests.
Author: David G. Victor Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
New evidence that the climate system may be especially sensitive to the build-up of greenhouse gases and that humans are doing a poor job of controlling their effluent has animated discussions around the possibility of offsetting the human impact on climate through 'geoengineering'. Nearly all assessments of geoengineering have concluded that the option, while ridden with flaws and unknown side effects, is intriguing because of its low cost and the ability for one or a few nations to geoengineer the planet without cooperation from others. I argue that norms to govern deployment of geoengineering systems will be needed soon. The standard instruments for establishing such norms, such as treaties, are unlikely to be effective in constraining geoengineers because the interests of key players diverge and it is relatively easy for countries to avoid inconvenient international commitments and act unilaterally. Instead, efforts to craft new norms 'bottom up' will be more effective. Such an approach, which would change the underlying interests of key countries and thus make them more willing to adopt binding norms in the future, will require active, open research programmes and assessments of geoengineering. Meaningful research may also require actual trial deployment of geoengineering systems so that norms are informed by relevant experience and command respect through use. Standard methods for international assessment organized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are unlikely to yield useful evaluations of geoengineering options because the most important areas for assessment lie in the improbable, harmful, and unexpected side effects of geoengineering, not the 'consensus science' that IPCC does well. I also suggest that real-world geoengineering will be a lot more complex and expensive than currently thought because simple interventions-such as putting reflective particles in the stratosphere-will be combined with many other costlier interventions to offset nasty side effects.
Author: Great Britain. Parliament House of Commons. Select Committee on Science and Technology Publisher: ISBN: Category : Climatic changes Languages : en Pages :
Author: David Keith Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 0262019825 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 224
Book Description
A leading scientist argues that we must consider deploying climate engineering technology to slow the pace of global warming. Climate engineering—which could slow the pace of global warming by injecting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere—has emerged in recent years as an extremely controversial technology. And for good reason: it carries unknown risks and it may undermine commitments to conserving energy. Some critics also view it as an immoral human breach of the natural world. The latter objection, David Keith argues in A Scientist's Case for Climate Engineering, is groundless; we have been using technology to alter our environment for years. But he agrees that there are large issues at stake. A leading scientist long concerned about climate change, Keith offers no naïve proposal for an easy fix to what is perhaps the most challenging question of our time; climate engineering is no silver bullet. But he argues that after decades during which very little progress has been made in reducing carbon emissions we must put this technology on the table and consider it responsibly. That doesn't mean we will deploy it, and it doesn't mean that we can abandon efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But we must understand fully what research needs to be done and how the technology might be designed and used. This book provides a clear and accessible overview of what the costs and risks might be, and how climate engineering might fit into a larger program for managing climate change.
Author: National Research Council Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309314852 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 276
Book Description
The growing problem of changing environmental conditions caused by climate destabilization is well recognized as one of the defining issues of our time. The root problem is greenhouse gas emissions, and the fundamental solution is curbing those emissions. Climate geoengineering has often been considered to be a "last-ditch" response to climate change, to be used only if climate change damage should produce extreme hardship. Although the likelihood of eventually needing to resort to these efforts grows with every year of inaction on emissions control, there is a lack of information on these ways of potentially intervening in the climate system. As one of a two-book report, this volume of Climate Intervention discusses albedo modification - changing the fraction of incoming solar radiation that reaches the surface. This approach would deliberately modify the energy budget of Earth to produce a cooling designed to compensate for some of the effects of warming associated with greenhouse gas increases. The prospect of large-scale albedo modification raises political and governance issues at national and global levels, as well as ethical concerns. Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth discusses some of the social, political, and legal issues surrounding these proposed techniques. It is far easier to modify Earth's albedo than to determine whether it should be done or what the consequences might be of such an action. One serious concern is that such an action could be unilaterally undertaken by a small nation or smaller entity for its own benefit without international sanction and regardless of international consequences. Transparency in discussing this subject is critical. In the spirit of that transparency, Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth was based on peer-reviewed literature and the judgments of the authoring committee; no new research was done as part of this study and all data and information used are from entirely open sources. By helping to bring light to this topic area, this book will help leaders to be far more knowledgeable about the consequences of albedo modification approaches before they face a decision whether or not to use them.
Author: Michael B. Gerrard
Author: Michael B. Gerrard
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Science and Technology Committee
Author: Kerryn Brent
Author: David G. Victor
Author: Jesse L. Reynolds
Author: Great Britain. Parliament House of Commons. Select Committee on Science and Technology
Author: David Keith
Author: National Research Council
Author: Janine Nathalie Melanie Sargoni
Author: Amitav Acharya