C2GLearn
Introduction to the governance of
Solar Radiation Modification
This topic aims to offer the audience basic information about Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) approaches and the need for their governance. It seeks to answer the following questions:
- What is SRM and why do we need to talk about its governance now?
- What are important SRM approaches, how might they work, what are potential benefits and risks?
- What are the governance challenges around SRM?
- How might some of the governance challenges be considered or addressed in the context of current governance processes and mechanisms?
Webinars
This Webinar will feature three ten-minute expert overviews of solar radiation modification approaches, and the governance challenges they raise. It will be followed by a half hour moderated Q&A session, during which audience members will be invited to submit written questions via the Zoom chat. Speakers include:
Anna-Maria Hubert / Canada
Anna-Maria Hubert is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary. She is also an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Science, Innovation, and Society at the University of Oxford. Anna-Maria’s research interests lie generally in the area of public international law, focusing on the law of the sea, international environmental law, international human rights law, and international law and policy of science and emerging technologies. She has published extensively on the topic of the regulation and governance of climate engineering, and has provided information and advice to governments, intergovernmental organisations, NGOs, and scientific institutions on this topic. From 2015 to 2019, she was Principal Investigator of the Geoengineering Research Governance Project (GRGP), a joint initiative of the University of Calgary, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam and the University of Oxford, a project which sought to enhance understanding about the complex issues posed by proposed geoengineering techniques, and to analyse the changes required in governance and legal frameworks necessary to enable effective oversight in this space in line with accepted principles.
Douglas MacMartin / United States of America
Douglas MacMartin is a Senior Research Fellow in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. His research focuses on climate engineering (also known as solar geoengineering or climate intervention) with the aim of helping to develop the knowledge base necessary to support informed future societal decisions in this challenging and controversial field. He has published extensively on the subject, and in addition to public and academic presentations has provided briefings to the UN Environment Program and testimony to the US Congress, and is a member of a US National Academies panel that will make recommendations on both research and governance. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 1992; previous positions include United Technologies Research Center (1994-2000) and the California Institute of Technology (2000-2015). His research is funded by NSF and by the Cornell University Atkinson Center.
Thelma Krug / Brazil
Thelma Krug is a former researcher at the Earth Observation Coordination at the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil, under the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC). She was elected Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the Sixth Cycle of Panel (October 2015 – October 2022), after having been co-chair of the IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories from 2002 until 2015. She holds a PhD on Spatial Statistics from the University of Sheffield, UK. She has been Deputy National Secretary at the Secretary on Policies and Programs of Science and Technology at MCTIC; National Secretary at the Secretary on Climate Change and Environmental Quality from the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and Director of the Department on Policies to Combat Deforestation under the Secretary of Climate Change and Forests at MMA. For more than 15 years she represented Brazil in the negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with particular focus on issues related to land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF); research and systematic observations; and reporting guidelines. Her main areas of interest are climate change and the role of deforestation, forest degradation and land-use change; REDD+; and national greenhouse gas inventories.Moderator: Nicholas Harrison / United Kingdom
Nicholas Harrison is C2G’s Director of Knowledge Management. He brings 20 years’ experience working across Europe and internationally on sustainable development and climate change governance and implementation.
Prior to joining C2G, Harrison served as an adviser on climate action in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General, supporting delivery and ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Before this, as a senior consultant at Ecofys, he coordinated global teams of experts delivering high-profile international research assessments and analysis on climate change, sustainable energy, and low emissions development
In previous roles, Harrison served as an adviser on climate change and strategic intelligence for the UK Department of International Development, Department of Communities and Local Government, and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. He began his career in environmental engineering, moving into communications to promote renewable energy technologies, followed by various roles in city, regional, and national government, improving the use of data and evidence to deliver more sustainable development.
Harrison has written and presented widely on climate change and sustainable development, served on the Sustainable Communities committee of the British Standards Institution (BSI) and worked extensively to promote integrated multi-level governance and the role of cities, states, and other non-state actors in climate action.
He holds an MSc in organisational psychology from City University, London, is a fellow of LEAD International and the Norfolk Charitable Trust, and is an independent expert for the Climate KIC, Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on climate innovation to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Introduction
Presentations
Slide presentations
- Thelma Krug Introduction to the governance of Solar Radiation Modification [pdf]
- Douglas MacMartin Introduction to the governance of Solar Radiation Modification: Key SRM approaches and their governance challenges [pdf]
- Anna-Maria Hubert Governance of Solar Radiation Modification [pdf]
Q&A (Webinar 1)
Q&A (Webinar 2)
Campfire Chat
This Campfire Chat aimed to provide insights into diverse viewpoints on the governance of SRM (presented in the webinars above), in a relatively informal, moderated, semi-structured discussion between experts. Audience members were invited to suggest topics via the Zoom chat. Guests included:
Arunabha Ghosh / India
Dr Arunabha Ghosh is a public policy professional, adviser, author, columnist, and institution builder. As the founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, since 2010, he has led CEEW to the top ranks as one of Asia’s leading policy research institutions (seven years in a row); and among the world’s 20 best climate think-tanks in 2013 and 2016. He has been actively involved in the design of the International Solar Alliance since inception. He conceptualised and is a founding board member of the Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN). With experience in 45 countries, he previously worked at Princeton, Oxford, UNDP (New York), and WTO (Geneva). In 2018, the UN Secretary-General nominated him to the UN’s Committee for Development Policy. In 2020, the Government of India appointed him Co-Chair of the energy, environment and climate change track for India’s forthcoming Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP2020). His 2019 TED Talk on air quality (Mission 80-80-80) crossed 100,000 views within three weeks of release. He is one of six members of an international high-level panel of the Environment of Peace initiative.
He is lead author of Jobs, Growth and Sustainability: A New Social Contract for India’s Recovery (CEEW, 2020). He is the co-author/editor of four books: The Palgrave Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy (2016); Energizing India: Towards a Resilient and Equitable Energy System (SAGE, 2016); Human Development and Global Institutions (Routledge, 2016); and Climate Change: A Risk Assessment (FCO, 2015). Arunabha’s essay “Rethink India’s energy strategy” in Nature was selected as one of 2015’s ten most influential essays.
Arunabha advises governments, industry, civil society and international organisations around the world. This has included India’s Prime Minister’s Office, several ministries and state governments. He was invited by France, as a Personnalité d’Avenir, to advise on the COP21 climate negotiations; and also advised extensively on HFC negotiations. He served on the Executive Committee of the India-U.S. PACEsetter Fund. He has been a member of Track II dialogues with ten countries/regions; and formulated the Maharashtra-Guangdong Partnership on Sustainability. He is a member of the Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority for the National Capital Region.
His monthly columns in the Business Standard (Inflexion Points) and the Hindustan Times (Over The Horizon) are widely read. He has hosted a documentary on water in Africa, featured in National Geographic and Discovery Channel documentaries on energy, and delivered a TED Talk on air quality. He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, member of WEF’s Global Future Council on Energy, and an Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader. He holds a D.Phil. from Oxford and topped Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.
Jesse Reynolds / United States of America
Dr. Jesse Reynolds is a scholar of international environmental policy. He researches and teaches how society can develop norms, rules, procedures, and institutions to manage environmental opportunities and challenges, particularly those involving new technologies. While his approach is centered within international environmental law, he draws upon other disciplines, including international relations and economics. Dr. Reynolds has extensively researched geoengineering (climate engineering), a group of proposed methods to intentionally intervene in earth systems at large scales in order to counterbalance anthropogenic climate change. His book The Governance of Solar Geoengineering: Managing Climate Change in the Anthropocene was recently published on Cambridge University Press. Dr. Reynolds is also currently exploring the roles of new biotechnologies, such as gene drives, and artificial intelligence in the conservation of biodiversity and facilitating sustainability more generally. He is an Emmett / Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy at the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. He is also an associate researcher at the Utrecht Center for Water, Oceans, and Sustainability Law, Utrecht University and a research affiliate at Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program, Harvard University. Dr. Reynolds has degrees from Tilburg University, The Netherlands (partially as a Fulbright Fellow, US Department of State); the University of California, Berkeley (as an EPA Science-to-Achieve Results Fellow); and Hampshire College.Shuchi Talati / United States of America
Dr. Shuchi Talati was most recently the Geoengineering Research, Governance and Public Engagement Fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) where she worked to guide sound governance around carbon removal and proposed solar geoengineering approaches to limit global warming. Prior to joining UCS, Dr. Talati was the American Association for the Advancement of Science/American Institute of Physics (AAAS/AIP) Congressional Science Fellow in the offices of Senator Tammy Duckworth (Democrat, Illinois) and Senator Al Franken (Democrat, Minnesota) where she worked on the climate and energy portfolio. Before working in Congress, she was a post-doctoral fellow in science policy at the American Meteorological Society; she served at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Obama Administration; and has also worked at various environmental non-profit organisations. Dr. Talati earned a Bachelor of Science in environmental engineering from Northwestern University, a Master of Arts in climate and society from Columbia University, and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University in engineering and public policy. Her doctoral research focused on the climate-energy-water nexus looking specifically at the impacts of domestic climate regulations and low carbon electricity generation.Thelma Krug / Brazil
Thelma Krug is a former researcher at the Earth Observation Coordination at the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil, under the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC). She was elected Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the Sixth Cycle of Panel (October 2015 – October 2022), after having been co-chair of the IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories from 2002 until 2015. She holds a PhD on Spatial Statistics from the University of Sheffield, UK. She has been Deputy National Secretary at the Secretary on Policies and Programs of Science and Technology at MCTIC; National Secretary at the Secretary on Climate Change and Environmental Quality from the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and Director of the Department on Policies to Combat Deforestation under the Secretary of Climate Change and Forests at MMA. For more than 15 years she represented Brazil in the negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with particular focus on issues related to land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF); research and systematic observations; and reporting guidelines. Her main areas of interest are climate change and the role of deforestation, forest degradation and land-use change; REDD+; and national greenhouse gas inventories.
Moderator: Kai-Uwe Barani Schmidt / Germany
Kai-Uwe Barani Schmidt builds on more than 20 years of international and senior level working experience including at the executive office of the secretary-general of the United Nations, at the secretariat to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, at the World Bank Institute, and independent senior advisory work.
As a senior member of the secretary-general’s Climate Change Support Team, Schmidt contributed to the coordination of the global climate change summit in 2009 and was part of the secretary-general’s team at UNFCCC negotiations in Copenhagen. In the lead-up to and during the landmark Paris climate change agreement in 2015, he led the team’s work on the global climate action agenda, initiated by the secretary-general at his 2014 summit, that mobilized thousands of companies, hundreds of cities, and sub-national authorities in collaboration with governments, the UN, IGOs, and NGOs.
Over the last few years, Schmidt has contributed to the launch of the Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT). This initiative aims to build a best practice for guidance, tools, and capacity of governments and sub-national authorities to measure the effects of their policies with regard to climate change and the other UN SDGs and report progress publicly, thus fostering greater transparency, effectiveness, and trust, enabling innovative financing and ambition in climate policies worldwide.
Schmidt’s experience has covered public policy design, regulatory design, and implementation of global emissions trading and offset instruments. He has coordinated high-level events, navigating the interface of international negotiations with private sector, intergovernmental, and non-governmental organizations focusing on private sector engagement in climate change and development action at international, national, sub-national, city, and company/NGO levels. In addition, Schmidt’s experience has covered institutional build-up and management of both resources and people.
C2G strives to achieve a diversity of views and backgrounds across all its events. To that end, it is always open to feedback and suggestions regarding future participants and topics, to ensure a range of perspectives by sector, gender, race, geography, age and other dimensions. It will not always achieve the necessary diversity in all circumstances due to issues of availability and familiarity, but aims over time to expand the range of contributors able to address its issues, subject to the broad principles outlined in its mission statement.
