As you may have seen in the news, the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s recent global assessment report found that human activity is driving an increase in medium- to large-scale disasters, many of which are fueled by climate. These escalating impacts pose grave risks to all people, and particularly to the world’s most vulnerable communities.
In that context, yesterday The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) published a special report, Reflecting Sunlight to Reduce Climate Risks, describing the need for information and consideration of policy approaches to reducing climate risk through increasing the reflection of sunlight from particles and clouds in the atmosphere, or “solar climate intervention” (SCI), a more rapid response to reducing warming than most forms of mitigation or carbon removal.
The report by CFR Senior Fellow Stewart Patrick described the role SCI could play in reducing climate impacts on people and the environment and its potential to reduce the risks of major abrupt changes in natural systems (“tipping points”). It emphasized that concerns about sunlight reflection methods are often based on speculation and the importance of applying evidence to weigh the risks of interventions against the risks of climate change, versus considering them in isolation. (SilverLining Executive Director, Kelly Wanser, was part of the committee informing the report.)
The report emphasizes the importance of the role that SCI could play in extending the time available for scaling necessary emissions reduction, decarbonization, and adaptation. It describes SCI as a “potential fast-acting, low-cost, and high-leverage way to limit increasing global temperatures and their resulting effects.” Perhaps most importantly, the report urges that appropriate research be done to investigate all risks and possibilities and weigh them against the known dangers of climate change.
Such research requires a well-funded, well-coordinated U.S. national research program to carefully analyze the use of SCI as a way to reduce the harmful effects of climate change, and specifically, natural-system tipping points and their potential consequences, a position we have taken for many years at SilverLining.
Given the global nature of climate interventions, the report recommends the U.S. work hand-in-glove with other countries to coordinate research and develop mechanisms to govern any use of climate interventions. It highlights the fact that strong international cooperation is essential to global alignment and geopolitical security, an area that SilverLining actively advances through government and UN advocacy, our Safe Climate Research Initiative and our Global Youth Initiative.
The report recommends that the Biden Administration launch a robust U.S. research effort “to better understand the feasibility, benefits, risks, and effects of solar climate intervention and support evidence-based decision-making about whether to include it in humanity’s portfolio of climate risk-management strategies.”
A potential U.S. research effort should:
Deepen U.S. and global understanding of evolving climate threats to assess whether sunlight reflection methods could reduce these risks
Evaluate possible dangers such interventions could pose for the environment, economy, society, and global security
Apply principles that include evidence-based approaches to decision-making, weighing risks and uncertainties of sunlight reflection in the broader context of climate change
Ensure transparency through information sharing
Place international scientific collaboration among diverse governments and researchers at the forefront
The report finds that several hundred million dollars per year is necessary to support a U.S. research effort, and advises coordination across government agencies through the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Internationally, it posits that a global system of multilateral governance should be the ultimate goal, but that given the diversity and complexity of countries’ situations, the U.S. should be prepared for alternative approaches to cooperation.
Overall, CFR and Stewart Patrick have provided a highly valuable introduction to solar climate intervention and contribution to policy dialogue for this complex, but profoundly important, area.