In 2018, pressure is rising for geoengineering to formally enter the UNFCCC negotiation process in some way or another. It has in recent years been a hot topic in the UNFCCC corridors, but it’s unclear if and how it will land in the official negotiation process. What...
Governance
Governing the “Big Bad Fix”: Geoengineering, human rights and international law
by Duncan Currie, LLB. (Hons.) LL.M., Guest author Geoengineering – large-scale manipulation of the Earth’s natural systems – is increasingly being presented as a strategy to counteract, dilute or delay climate change without disrupting energy- and resource-intensive...
Geoengineering at COP23
by Matthew Kennedy, College of the Atlantic COP23 in Bonn this November saw the continuing intrusion of the geoengineering discourse into the global climate talks, but it was countered by civil society’s persistent rebuttal that geoengineering is not an appropriate...
Critical Geoengineering Activities at COP 23
If you're in Bonn for the UN Climate Conference for the next few weeks, mark your calendars for the following side events from civil society critical of climate geoengineering: “Geoengineering, technofixes and radical emission reductions” Hosted by Heinrich...
Climate Engineering Conference 2017: a CSO perspective
By Oli Munnion (Biofuelwatch) The Climate Engineering Conference 2017 aimed to "bring together the research, policy, and civic communities to discuss the highly complex and interlinked ethical, social and technical issues related to climate engineering." In practice,...
Geoengineering further encroaching on the IPCC’s work: 46th IPCC meeting in Montréal, Canada
Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the main scientific authority in the field of climate change – came together for their 46th meeting in the city of Montréal, Canada. Although the work of IPCC is geared towards producing...
UN Convention still says “No” to manipulating the climate
by ETC Group UN Convention on Biological Diversity reaffirms its moratorium on climate-related geoengineering CANCUN, MEXICO – The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which gathered at its 13th Conference of the Parties (COP 13) in Mexico from December 4-17,...
We Can’t Count on Geoengineering to Save Us From Climate Change, Scientists Warn
by Stephen Buranyi (Motherboard) In December, governments around the world got together and grandly agreed to limit global warming to below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels—with a preference for keeping it below 1.5℃. The Paris Agreement recognizes that, if we fail, the...
The New Cold War: The Political Problem of Geoengineering
by Caroline Jones (Brown Political Review) For a long time, weather control was merely the stuff of Greek myths, super powers, or science fiction novels. But experimentation with altering weather and climate in the academic realm has been explored for nearly two...
If mankind is forced to take drastic action to stop global violence or warming, things are gonna get ugly
by John Knefel (Inverse) Erratic weather. Draughts. Hurricanes. ISIS. It seems like one of these things doesn’t belong. And while it’s true that the persistence of terrorist groups in the Middle East is a phenomenon separate from global warming, two new reports and...
Geoengineering Moratorium at UN Ministerial in Japan
(ETC Group) NAGOYA, Japan – In a landmark consensus decision, the 193-member UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will close its tenth biennial meeting with a de facto moratorium on geoengineering projects and experiments. “Any private or public experimentation...