Solar Geoengineering: Ethics and Science | Harvard Climate Action Week 2024

Solar geoengineering refers to a strategy for reducing the impacts of climate change by reflecting some of the incoming solar radiation. Long considered too controversial to discuss in public, it has been getting more and more attention both within the scientific community and from the public at large, perhaps due to the growing awareness of climate change impacts as well as the scale of the challenge of decarbonizing the global energy system.
For nearly 20 years, Harvard has played a leading role in convening conversations surrounding this approach to managing climate change, as well as contributing important scholarship on new technological approaches, better understanding of the impacts, and debates surrounding its governance.
In this panel, leading scholars from atmospheric chemistry, climate physics and philosophy discussed the current state of our understanding of solar geoengineering, highlighting the main areas of uncertainty, and identified ways to move forward on solar geoengineering research while the debate intensifies on its possible deployment.
Speakers:
Daniel Schrag
Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
Britta Clark
PhD Candidate
Harvard University Department of Philosophy
Frank Keutsch
Stonington Professor of Engineering and Atmospheric Science
Harvard University
Billy Pizer
President & CEO
Resources for the Future (RFF)
Robin Wordsworth
Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental and Planetary Science
Harvard University