Eleventh International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

In recent years, the feckless response of the world community to climate change has led to a steadily growing drumbeat for research into, and potential deployment of, of so-called “climate geoengineering” options, defined as defined as approaches that would involve large-scale engineering of our environment in order to combat or counteract the effects of changes in atmospheric chemistry. While climate geoengineering approaches could potentially help us to avoid passing critical climatic thresholds, many of them are also fraught with risk, and could produce winners and losers, emphasizing the need for just, equitable and effective governance architecture. With the recent coming into force of the Paris Agreement, a pertinent question is how climate geoengineering approaches might be governed under the treaty framework. The purpose of this presentation will be to assess the potential role of the Paris Agreement in governing climate geoengineering research and/or deployment.