Towards a comprehensive climate impacts assessment of solar geoengineering



Irvine, Peter J, Kravitz, Ben, Lawrence, Mark G, Gerten, Dieter, Caminade, Cyril ORCID: 0000-0002-3846-7082, Gosling, Simon N, Hendy, Erica J, Kassie, Belay T, Kissling, W Daniel, Muri, Helene
et al (show 2 more authors) (2017) Towards a comprehensive climate impacts assessment of solar geoengineering. EARTHS FUTURE, 5 (1). pp. 93-106.

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Abstract

<jats:p>Despite a growing literature on the climate response to solar geoengineering—proposals to cool the planet by increasing the planetary albedo—there has been little published on the impacts of solar geoengineering on natural and human systems such as agriculture, health, water resources, and ecosystems. An understanding of the impacts of different scenarios of solar geoengineering deployment will be crucial for informing decisions on whether and how to deploy it. Here we review the current state of knowledge about impacts of a solar‐geoengineered climate and identify the major research gaps. We suggest that a thorough assessment of the climate impacts of a range of scenarios of solar geoengineering deployment is needed and can be built upon existing frameworks. However, solar geoengineering poses a novel challenge for climate impacts research as the manner of deployment could be tailored to pursue different objectives making possible a wide range of climate outcomes. We present a number of ideas for approaches to extend the survey of climate impacts beyond standard scenarios of solar geoengineering deployment to address this challenge. Reducing the impacts of climate change is the fundamental motivator for emissions reductions and for considering whether and how to deploy solar geoengineering. This means that the active engagement of the climate impacts research community will be important for improving the overall understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and risks presented by solar geoengineering.</jats:p>

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: climate impacts, climate change, geoengineering, climate engineering, solar radiation management, ISI-MIP
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 02 Dec 2016 16:00
Last Modified: 02 Oct 2023 10:14
DOI: 10.1002/2016EF000389
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3004742