On 17 January 2022, more than 60 senior climate scientists and governance scholars from around the world launched a global initiative calling for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering. Hundreds of scholars now support the call for a Non-Use Agreement.
Solar geoengineering deployment cannot be fairly governed globally and poses unacceptable risk if implemented as a future climate policy option. [1]
We call on fellow academics, civil society organizations and concerned individuals to sign our open letter [2] to governments, the United Nations and other actors to stop development and potential use of planetary-scale solar geoengineering technologies.
Our initiative mobilizes especially against the most widely debated speculative technology: the massive spraying of aerosols in the stratosphere to block a part of incoming sunlight to cool the planet. Such dangerous planetary-scale interventions cannot be governed in a globally inclusive, fair and effective manner and must be banned.
Therefore, we call for an International Non-use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering
An International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering would be timely, feasible, and effective. It would inhibit further normalization and development of a risky and poorly understood set of technologies.
An International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering must include at least five core measures and commitments:
1 • NO PUBLIC FUNDING
The commitment to prohibit national funding agencies from supporting the development of technologies for solar geoengineering, domestically and through international institutions.
2 • NO OUTDOOR EXPERIMENTS
The commitment to ban outdoor experiments of solar geoengineering technologies.
3 • NO PATENTS
The commitment to not grant patent rights for technologies for solar geoengineering, including supporting technologies such as for the retrofitting of airplanes for aerosol injections.
4 • NO DEPLOYMENT
The commitment to not deploy technologies for solar geoengineering if developed by third parties.
5 • No support in international institutions
“I am forever a Boy Scout, lifetime artist, nocturnal programmer, music is my life, love is my religion, and I am the luckiest husband and father on Earth. I speak for the trees. I have a passion for mapping, magnets, and mysteries.”
About Jim Lee
