Thesis subject

Anticipatory governance of solar geoengineering and other risky technologies and activities: Key challenges and ways forward

Solar geoengineering refers to a set of speculative technologies that have the potential to reflect some incoming sunlight back out into space, as a way to counteract the adverse effects of anthropogenic climate change. How are such speculative and potentially highly risky technologies being governed, in an anticipatory manner?

MSc thesis projects on this topic can focus on:

  • the geopolitics of anticipatory governance of solar geoengineering, including the (minimal) involvement of developing countries
  • the role of scientific experts in shaping the solar geoengineering governance debate and directions
  • restrictive versus enabling governance mechanisms that are or should be in place to shape decision making in this area
  • lessons learned for solar geoengineering governance from already existing precedents in international law, relating to global governance regimes that prohibit, for e.g., transboundary trade in hazardous substances, use of chemical or biological weapons, mining in Antarctica, deep sea bed mining, human cloning or use of anti-personal land mines

This topic is related to the Solar geoengineering Non-Use Agreement project, and to the REIMAGINE project on anticipatory climate governance and to the PhD project of Karlijn Muiderman.

About

Aarti’s research focuses on the international politics of global environmental and climate governance, including the role of science, knowledge, and transparency. She is also interested in the challenges of anticipatory governance of novel technologies, such as solar geoengineering. Her background is in international relations, political science and science and technology studies.