Jinnah spent the last four years developing a theoretically derived governance framework for SCoPEx as co-chair of the SCoPEx Advisory Committee. She recently published an article in Science detailing the challenges the SCoPEx Advisory Committee encountered in its efforts to govern the proposed solar geoengineering experiment.
Emerging technologies are often controversial, but research is vital to understanding their potential risks and benefits. This is the perspective of UC Santa Cruz environmental studies professor Sikina Jinnah regarding climate change mitigation strategies, such as solar geoengineering.
“It is controversial because of the potential for unknown and potentially devastating environmental impacts. There are also concerns about its use as a substitute for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the lack of global governance around its implementation,” said Jinnah, who is also the associate director of the Center for Reimagining Leadership (CRL), and directs the Climate Justice Fellows Program.
The SCoPEx Advisory Committee, one of the world’s first efforts to design a governance framework for an outdoor solar geoengineering experiment, encountered substantial hurdles during its work. While the committee’s efforts provided valuable guidance for future projects, as detailed in Jinnah’s Science article, the process underscored the inadequacy of a case-by-case governance model for proposed experiments in solar geoengineering.
The article further recommends roles for policymakers, funders, and research institutions in establishing improved guardrails for future research endeavors in solar geoengineering. It emphasizes the need for proactive, standardized, and centralized forms of research governance in the field of solar geoengineering. The proposal is that governance should be led by a public entity with enforcement authority, involving a multistakeholder advisory board, and an international component. The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) is also identified as a fitting international body to lead governance efforts. Additionally, it suggests that universities, nonprofits, and funders should develop and enforce research standards, with privately funded projects subjected to a rigorous scientific review process.
“Ad-hoc committees are not an efficient way to administer governance processes, and public engagement needs to start way earlier to mitigate potential concerns,” said Jinnah.
In addition to Science, Jinnah co-authored a paper in WIRES Climate Change that advocates against a broad international “non-use agreement” on activities related to solar geoengineering, and she partnered with the Alliance for Just Deliberation for Solar Geoengineering to create capacity-building materials on the topic. Jinnah created a briefing book on climate science and policy as well as solar geoengineering science, governance, and ethics and justice with the help of Zachary Dove, a Ph.D. candidate in politics; Marcella Kolpin, who recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies; and Erika Check Hayden, director of UC Santa Cruz’s Science Communication Program. The outreach materials were used this September at an event in South Africa with more than 100 participants. Jinnah is also writing a book for Cambridge University Press centered on public engagement around solar engineering, which will include and make publicly available the briefing materials.
Jinnah’s ongoing work on both solar geoengineering and in engaging coastal climate vulnerable communities in California is supported in part by grants from the UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience.
Last week, Jinnah shared her concerns with the New York Times about entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley who are selling ‘climate credits’ to release sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere,
“They are a couple of tech bros who have no expertise in doing what they’re claiming to do,” Jinnah said. “They’re not scientists and they’re making claims about cooling credits that nobody has validated.”
Jinnah also worries that in acting on their own, without independent verification of their work, these entrepreneurs are setting back the whole field of solar geoengineering.
“They’re making it much more difficult for people who are doing legitimate research,” she said. “They’re being quite irresponsible with the way they’re rolling out their project.”
