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Global Change and Climate Change Links: Climate Engineering and Carbon Management

» Reports and Statements

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  • Bodansky (2011): Governing Climate Engineering: Scenarios for Analysis
    Abstract: Geoengineering is a broad concept that encompasses a variety of large-scale, intentional, and "unnatural" technologies to control climate change, including both techniques to limit how much sunlight reaches the earth (usually referred to as "solar radiation management") as well techniques to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere ("carbon dioxide removal"). The potential of geoengineering to reverse global warming rapidly and cheaply makes it alluring to groups across the political spectrum, in particular, as a means of addressing rapid, catastrophic climate change. But geoengineering also poses significant risks, and raises the spectre of technology gone awry. This discussion paper for the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements reviews the various geoengineering approaches, analyzes their permissibility under existing international law, and explores the governance issues raised by four scenarios of particular concern: premature rejection, inadequate funding, unilateral action by an individual, and unilateral action by a single state or small group of states.
  • Geopiracy: The Case Against Geoengineering
    This publication of the ETC-Group examines the high stakes involved in the rapidly advancing field of geoengineering - the intentional, large-scale manipulation of the Earth's systems by artificially changing oceans, soils and the atmosphere. More than a set of climate altering technologies, geoengineering is a political strategy aimed at letting the industrialized countries off the hook for their climate debt. This report is to help civil society organizations navigate the coming global debates over the science and politics of climate-change techno-fixes.
  • The Regulation of Geoengineering The Science and Technology Committee on 5 November 2009 announced a new inquiry into the regulation of geoengineering. The House of Commons inquiry is being coordinated with an inquiry into geoengineering which the US Congressional Science and Technology Committee starting the same day.
  • International Governance of Geoengineering
    Memorandum to The House Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
  • Geoengineering the Climate System
    A Policy Statement of the American Meteorological Society
  • Geoengineering the climate: science, governance and uncertainty
    The Royal Society has published the findings of a major study into geoengineering the climate: Man-made climate change is happening and its impacts and costs will be large, serious and unevenly spread. The impacts may be reduced by adaptation and moderated by mitigation, especially by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. However, global efforts to reduce emissions have not yet been sufficiently successful to provide confidence that the reductions needed to avoid dangerous climate change will be achieved. This has led to growing interest in geoengineering, defined here as the deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change. The report provides a detailed assessment of the feasibility, efficacy and potential unintended consequences of geoengineering schemes.
  • Climate Engineering Responses to Climate Emergencies
    Report of the Novim Study Group
    IIASA press release
  • Copenhagen Consensus on Climate
    The Copenhagen Consensus Center offers advice to policymakers that follows on from the 21 research papers released by the Center during the summer of 2009, in which top economists outline different ways to respond to climate change
  • Retooling the Planet?
    Climate Chaos in the Geoengineering Age
    A report prepared by members of the ETC Group for the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
    This critical overview of geoengineering technologies examines the history, politics and social and ecological implications of attempts to add large-scale, intentional manipulation of the planet to the menu of possible responses to climate change. The report contests the notion that more funding, research and experimentation is needed into geoengineering technologies, and provides a series of recommendations on how these controversial technologies should be regulated.
  • Geo-engineering Research
    UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POSTnote
  • Climate Change 2001: IPCC Working Group III: Mitigation
    Technological and Economic Potential of Options to Enhance, Maintain, and Manage Biological Carbon Reservoirs and Geo-engineering
  • Geo-engineering and sea-level rise over the 21st century
    Scientific findings by international research group of scientists from England, China and Denmark just published suggest that sea level will likely be 30-70 centimetres higher by 2100 than at the start of the century even if all but the most aggressive geo-engineering schemes are undertaken to mitigate the effects of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions are stringently controlled.

» Conferences

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  • Geoengineering - taking control of our planet's climate
    8 - 9 November 2010, London, UK
    Society seems unable or unwilling to make the drastic reductions in CO2 emissions necessary to avoid 'dangerous' (unacceptable) climate change. A new science 'Geoengineering' that until recently would have seemed pure science fiction, promises an alternative way of temporarily regaining control of climate. This meeting of the Royal Society considers the state of this new science, and its implications to society.
  • Ethische Aspekte des Geoengineering
    The ethical perspective on climateengineering
    30 September - 2 October 2010, Greifswald, Germany
    (in German)
  • Climate Engineering: Challenges for Research, Assessment and Governance
    17 September 2010 Kiel, Germany
    An interdisciplinary group of researchers is planning to apply for a Priority Programme of the German Research Foundation to investigate under what conditions Climate Engineering could be feasible, beneficial and justifiable. The focus of this meeting is to present the current state of the proposal and to open the discussion for suggestions and participation of other researchers.
  • Asilomar International Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies
    Minimizing the Potential Risk of Research to Counter-balance Climate Change and its Impacts
    22 - 26 March 2010, Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, California, USA
  • 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting
    18 - 22 February 2010, San Diego, USA
  • Science, Research and International Governance of Geoengineering
    COP 15 Side Events
    10 - 18 December 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Geoengineering - Cure or Malpractice?
    03 June 2009, Kiel, Germany
    The Kiel Earth Institute hosted an international colloquium on geoengineering, entitled “Geoengineering – Cure or Malpractice?” on June 3, 2009. Within broad stake Prof. Ralph Keeling from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego (US), Prof. Steve Rayner from Said Business School, University of Oxford (UK) and Prof. Dr. Konrad Ott from Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald (Germany) presented and discussed on the colloquium the concept of geoengineering, its technical options, as well as ethical, economic, and political aspects of geoengineering the earth system. The closing lively panel discussion was added by Prof. Proelß, professor for public law at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel.
  • American Meteorological Society: Environmental Science & Policy Briefing
    Two Engineering Measures to Reduce Global Warming
    Injecting Particles into the Atmosphere and "Clean" Coal
    21 November 2008, Washington, DC, USA
  • Council on Foreign Relations
    Workshop on Unilateral Planetary Scale Geoengineering
    5 May 2008, Washington, DC, USA

» Scientific Programs and Projects

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  • Heidelberg University: Marsilius Kolleg
    The Global Governance of Climate Engineering
    The project studies various Climate or Geo-engineering proposals from an interdisciplinary viewpoint and with regards to a global political regulation. The graduate college is structured to conjoin different scientific fields to answer the following research questions: Which technologies are feasible from a scientific and economic viewpoint? How do discourses on benefits and risks evolve and how is the topic taken on by the media? How are the suggestions debated within international institutions and how are decisions made on research and implementation? The involved disciplines comprise Human Geography, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Law, Environmental Physics and Economics.
  • IMPLICC - Implications and risks of engineering solar radiation to limit climate change
    IMPLICC addresses the call ”Implications and Risks of Novel Options to Limit Climate Change“ within the activity "Climate Change, Pollution and Risks” of the European Union's framework-7 programme (FP7) for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007-2013). The project is expected to be launched in July 2009 under the cooperation of 5 higher educational and research institutions in France, Germany and Norway. The overall activities of the project are coordinated by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, and will run for three years.
  • Geoengineering: Facts or Fiction
    This IGBP synthesis aims to bring together a group of scientists, engineers, economists, policymakers and local communities, amongst others, to evaluate whether, and if so how, geoengineering schemes can contribute to ameliorating or managing the negative effects of climate change.

» Organizations

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  • National Committee on Global Change Research (NKGCF)
    The National Committee on Global Change Research provides initiatives and takes a leading role in coordinating and aligning the German contributions to global change research. Additionally, the NKGCF is national contact point for the international global environmental change programs IGBP, WCRP, DIVERSITAS and IHDP as well as for the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP).

» History

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» Solar Radiation Management (SRM)

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» Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)

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Ocean Fertilization

  • Ocean Fertilization
    A Scientific Summary for Policymakers
    This report was commissioned by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), which is part of UNESCO. It was prepared with the assistance of the Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS), an international programme that focuses research effort on air-sea interactions and processes, sponsored by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the International Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution (ICACGP).
  • Assessment Framework for scientific research involving ocean fertilization agreed
    Parties to the treaties regulating the dumping of wastes at sea met from 11-15 October 2010, at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), in London, UK, and adopted an Assessment Framework for Ocean Fertilization.
  • Scientific Synthesis of the Impacts of Ocean Fertilization on Marine Biodiversity
    Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
    CBD Technical Series No. 45
  • The Scientific and Policy Uncertainties Surrounding the Use of Ocean Fertilization to Transfer Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide to the Oceans
    A summary statement drafted by participants in a workshop sponsored by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)
  • Fertilizing the Ocean with Iron
    Should we add iron to the sea to help reduce greenhouse gases in the air?
    A six-part series of articles in OCEANUS, magazin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
  • Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB)
    OCB's Mission is to establish the evolving role of the ocean in the global carbon cycle, in the face of environmental change, through studies of marine biogeochemical cycles and associated ecosystems
  • Conference
    Exploring Ocean Iron Fertilization
    The scientific, economic, legal and political basis
    Videos and PDF versions of the conference participants' presentations
  • Southern Ocean Iron Experiment (SOFeX) Cruise
    January 5 - February 26, 2002
  • LOHAFEX
    LOHA is Hindi for iron, FEX stands for Fertilization EXperiment
    Indo-German iron fertilization experiment 2009
  • Valuing the Ocean Project of the Kiel Institute
    The ocean provides a number of ecosystem services, which are used by mankind in multiple ways but which have not been considered systematically in economics so far. Our working group evaluates the different ecosystem services provided by the ocean by integrating them into economic models. The following topics are considered:
    • Carbon Management
    • Energetic and Mineral Resources
    • Shipping
  • Güssow, Oschlies, Proelss, Rehdanz, Rickels:
    Ocean iron fertilization: Why further research is needed
    Paper provided by Kiel Institute for the World Economy in its series Kiel Working Papers with number 1574
    From an economic perspective the potential of OOIF is far from negligible in relation to other abatement options. Comparing the range of cost estimates to the range of estimates for forestation projects they are in the same order of magnitude, but OIF could provide more carbon credits even if high discount rates are used to account for potential leakage and non-permanence.
  • Christine Bertram:
    Ocean Iron Fertilization in the Context of the Kyoto Protocol and the Post-Kyoto Process
    Paper provided by Kiel Institute for the World Economy in its series Kiel Working Papers with number 1523
    After a discussion of the scientific background, quantitative potential, side effects, and costs regulatory aspects are reviewed,and it is analyzed how the regulations for afforestation and reforestation activities within the framework of the Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) could be applied to ocean iron fertilization.
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Carbon Sinks

  • IPCC Special Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change And Forestry
    This Special Report examines several key questions relating to the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the terrestrial pool of aboveground biomass, below-ground biomass, and soils. Vegetation exchanges carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere through photosynthesis and plant and soil respiration. This natural exchange has been occurring for hundreds of millions of years. Humans are changing the natural rate of exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere through land use, land-use change, and forestry activities. Consequently, it is important to examine how carbon flows between different pools and how carbon stocks change in response to afforestation, reforestation, and deforestation (ARD) and other land-use activities.
  • The Royal Society: The role of land carbon sinks in mitigating global climate change
    The report highlights the considerable uncertainty in the scientific understanding of the causes, magnitude and permanence of the land carbon sink. While noting that the potential for human enhancement of the land carbon sink through changes in land management practices is finite in size and duration, it recommends that methods used in the production of forest and agricultural crops should be modified to reflect their short-term role in absorbing carbon dioxide.
  • Land Use & Global Climate Change: Forests, Land Management, and the Kyoto Protocol
    Prepared for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change June 2000. Report authors Bernhard Schlamadinger and Gregg Marland examine how forests and other lands can be managed to slow the rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, review how the Kyoto Protocol deals with forests and other land uses, and identify outstanding issues that must be resolved if the Protocol is to be implemented.
  • FAO Forestry and Climate Change
    The programme on forests and climate change seeks to contribute to mitigating climate change by advocating and strengthening the concept of sustainable forest management.
  • IIASA Forestry Project
    IIASA’s Forestry Program (FOR) addresses these key challenges: management of global terrestrial ecosystems (including the forest sector) and interactions with other sectors in the context of global change: specifically climate change, deforestation, food security, land use competition, bioenergy and others.
  • Consortium for Agricultural Soils Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases (CASMGS)
    CASMGS is a consortium of nine universities and one National Laboratory assembled to investigate the potential of agricultural soils to mitigate greenhouse gases.
  • FACE (Forests Absorbing Carbon Dioxide Emissions) Foundation
    Face's aim is to sequester the greenhouse gas CO2 as quickly as possible and for as long as possible, by planting restoring and conserving forest. Face is supporting projects in the Netherlands, Central Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.
  • Global Canopy Programme
    The Global Canopy Programme is an alliance of 37 scientific institutions in 19 countries, which lead the world in forest canopy research, education and conservation. Our work programmes all aim to define and explore the range and economic value of forest ecosystem services and to share our findings with decision-makers in Government and finance.
  • Bibliography: GHG Balances of Bioenergy, Forestry, Wood Products, Land Use, and Land-Use Change
    This bibliography includes not only literature with reference to "bioenergy" and "greenhouse gases", but also work that deals with greenhouse gases as they relate to land use (e.g. agriculture,forestry) and land-use change. Information on the greenhouse gas implications of some selected fossil-fuel based energy systems complements the collection as this is needed for a comparison with biomass energy systems.
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Biochar

  • PYREG
    Verfahren zur thermischen und stofflichen Verwertung von Biomasse (in German)
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Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

  • EPA Underground Injection Control Program
    With proper site selection and management, geologic sequestration could play a major role in reducing emissions of CO2. This page provides information on the EPA Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water’s work to ensure the protection of underground sources of drinking water (USDWs).
  • Carbon Dioxide Capture and Geologic Storagepdf-file
    A core element of a global energy technology strategy to address climate change
    A technology report from the second phase of the Global Energy Technology Strategy Program (GTSP)
    prepared by Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle)
  • MIT Energy Laboratory Carbon Sequestration Initiative
    The Carbon Sequestration Initiative (CSI), will fund MIT scientists and engineers to perform objective assessments of carbon sequestration technologies and will provide seed grants for new research ideas. The CSI has six charter members from the oil and gas, electric power, and automotive sectors: American Electric Power, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Norsk Hydro (Norway), Texaco and TotalFinaElf (France). The carbon sequestration strategy involves capturing carbon dioxide emissions at their source, for example at an electric power plant, and then using or storing the carbon dioxide to prevent its buildup in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide can be stored by injecting it underground, for instance into depleted oil and gas reservoirs, or into the deep ocean. Sequestration also includes enhancing natural processes to increase the removal of carbon from the atmosphere, such as by planting trees.
  • GEO-SEQ Project
    GEO-SEQ (pronounced GEO-SEEK) is a public-private research and development (R&D) partnership that will deliver the technology and information needed to enable the application of safe and cost-effective methods for geologic sequestration of CO2 by the year 2015.
  • International Test Centre for CO2 Capture (ITC)
    The ultimate goal of the research program is to develop more effective CO2 separation processes to remove CO2 from flue gases, industrial gas processing plants, and other industrial gas streams.
  • CCSReg Project
    The CCS Regulatory Project is building upon previous research by members of our research team and by many others. The result will be detailed policy recommendations, regulatory approaches, and—where appropriate—draft legislative language that addresses CO2 capture, transportation, and injection, as well as long-term stewardship of sequestration sites.