An overshoot of the 1.5°C temperature target is looking inevitable. Research and conversations are increasing around whether and how solar geoengineering could blunt some of the worst impacts of this overshoot. But the status quo of investigator-driven, privately funded solar geoengineering research is insufficient for this moment. Policy and societal decisions about solar geoengineering need to be informed by research that is comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and globally engaged. A new, major research initiative is needed.

In a new article in One Earth, SIS Professor Simon Nicholson and his co-author Holly Jean Buck (University of Buffalo) outlines a proposal for a global network of climate action research centers that would provide appropriate conditions to produce reliable and legitimate solar geoengineering research. To develop this proposal, they refer to an illustrative example of a global research effort to further an international public good: the 15 CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) research centers, largely based in the Global South, which have a 50-year history of agricultural research to promote food security. Using insights from CGIAR’s successes and failures, Nicholson and Buck examine key considerations for policymakers and donors considering institutions or programs to fill global research needs for solar geoengineering.

Read the full open access article here.