The Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) Climate Mitigation Task Force has released a report which looks at where there might be a need for research activity on geoengineering. The report is a joint production between the Met Office Hadley Centre, University of East Anglia/Natural Environment Research Council and University of Exeter.
It includes a section looking at research gaps in climate remediation from an environmental perspective and a comprehensive overview of climate-related geoengineering research activities and opportunities. One of the main uses of the report will be as a guide to researchers in identifying important research gaps in the area of climate geoengineering.
The report describes the increasing scientific and political recognition of the need for careful, responsible and multi-disciplinary research on the potential risks and benefits of climate geoengineering. It raises key climate related questions and issues and argues that these need to be considered in a wide multi-disciplinary context, encompassing technology, economics, ethics and law.
It also addresses the need to assess research gaps from the perspective of other disciplines rather than exclusively from a climate-science perspective. Engineering and social science should according to the authors be included and in particular, ethical considerations, public acceptability and transparency are crucial before any research gaps might be taken forward to implementation.
You can access the full report by clicking here (pdf link).
For more on geoengineering on the FCRN website see here.
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