Governing Sunlight Reflection: A Review of Global Efforts
The challenge of governing Sunlight Reflection Methods (SRM) is generally regarded as being more difficult than the technology to do deploy it. Several notable efforts are leading in developing frameworks to advance the world's understanding of what this governance might look like.
This post is intended to be a resource for those working on planetary sunshade concepts to understand the wider SRM governance landscape.
In SRM discussions, research itself is controversial. Some believe that any research gives the wider public and government decision makers the impression that SRM is a quick fix, and there has been a strong movement to oppose any research. On the other side of that view point (including the Planetary Sunshade Foundation and our funder ARIA), those who engage in SRM research emphasize the need to responsibly and transparently understand the technology and its impacts such that fair and informed governance decisions might be made.
The following efforts are engaged in governance and ethical principles for both research and possible full-scale deployment.
Sunlight Reflection Methods Governance Research
The Planetary Sunshade Foundation’s largest source of funding is via the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency. ARIA’s Oversight + Governance Committee framework lays out a clear process for governing outdoor experiments, based on clearly defined public engagement requirements.
The Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering (DSG) “is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to fostering just and inclusive deliberation about research and potential use of solar geoengineering. DSG empowers civil society and policy actors to engage in solar geoengineering governance and decision-making. As a non-advocacy organization, we do not take a position for or against solar geoengineering deployment in the future.”
“DSG works towards inclusive, globally participatory governance for solar geoengineering research and potential deployment, ensuring historically marginalized and climate-vulnerable communities have a voice in decision-making.”
Their programs include:
Facilitating workshops for stakeholders around the world
Convening a climate intervention network of young professionals working in the field
Publishing their synthesis about the governance challenges of SRM with a focus on stratospheric aerosols and marine cloud brightening
The Center for Future Generations (CFG) “is an independent think-and-do tank created to help decision-makers anticipate and govern rapid technological change. We are here to make sure that emerging technologies are used in the best interests of humanity.”
“We strengthen governance based on science and inclusive discussion – to prevent unwise quick decisions with global and long-term consequences.”
CFG’s ARIA grant proposal reads: “The project SAFEGEOGOV (Strategic Foresight on Climate and Geopolitics: Toward Governance of Solar Radiation Modification) explores and produces scenarios informed by scientific and policy experts. These scenarios will make the potential risks, benefits, and uncertainties of SRM deployment more tangible. They will also offer insights into how SRM could intersect with geopolitical tensions, security concerns, migration, human rights, and similar issues.
The Degrees Initiative: “For over a decade, the Degrees Initiative has led the world in building the capacity of developing countries to evaluate solar radiation modification (SRM).
The use or rejection of SRM could be one of the biggest decisions humanity has faced, and this matters most to climate-vulnerable regions.
The world is going to need much more research if it’s going to make informed decisions about SRM, and a much broader conversation if it’s going to make equitable decisions.”
The Degrees initiative is a powerful convener. This spring they hosted the Degrees Global Forum in South Africa, the largest gathering of SRM researchers and policymakers. Over half the participants were from the Global South. I was grateful to attend, and the connections from that gathering were very valuable.
The American Geophysical Union (AGU), the world’s largest association of Earth and space scientists, takes the position that a robust body of scientific evidence about climate intervention, guided by an ethical framework, should be consulted as society weighs its options for addressing climate change. Therefore, AGU has facilitated the development of this Ethical Framework for Climate Intervention Research.
Principle 1: Responsible Research
Principle 2: Holistic Climate Justice
Principle 3: Inclusive Public Participation
Principle 4: Transparency
Principle 5: Informed Governance
Climate Overshoot Commission was founded after the 2022 IPCC report which found that staying below 1.50C would be all but impossible. It is the “result of a high-level process that explored the necessary conditions for a robust and science-based global dialogue on governance gaps relating to response options to climate change beyond emissions reductions.”
The Climate Overshoot Commission included a diverse group of leaders, including former heads of government such as Pascal Lamy, former Director-General of the World Trade Organization; Felipe Calderón, former President of Mexico; Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada; and Mahamadou Issoufou, former President of Niger. Other commissioners included ministers and experts like Hina Rabbani Khar, former Foreign Minister of Pakistan; Frances Beinecke, former President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); and Muhamad Chatib Basri, former Finance Minister of Indonesia. The commission also had science advisors, such as Thelma Krug, former Vice-Chair of the IPCC; Chris Field, Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and IPCC Working Group II Co-Chair; and Michael Obersteiner, Director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford.
The commission recommends, among other things, to invest in “Exploring the risks and benefits of reflecting incoming sunlight.” It goes on to detail how this should be done responsibly.
Resources for the Future and Harvard University organized this year’s 2025 RFF and Harvard SRM Social Science Research Workshop: Governance in a Fractured World. This collaboration seeks to improve our understanding of the risks, potential benefits, and other uncertain implications of SRM.
On September 4–5, they hosted this year’s workshop in Washington, DC, with a broad theme of “Governance in a Fractured World.” You can view a number of the presentations and papers discussed in the day-and-a-half-long event.
Other Reading
In addition to this partial list of organizations, I am including a few personal recommendations for books on the topic.
I am just starting to read Children of a Modest Star which engages deeply on topics of ‘planetary’ scale. I also enjoyed reading a critical voice with a ton of helpful context in Imagining Climate Engineering: Dreaming of the Designer Climate by Jeroen Oomen.
I have appreciated the historical context on a somewhat analogous challenge in The Battle for Bretton Woods, about the making of the post-war economic order. The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World covers one of the most profound shifts in international law.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. If there is interest, we can do more of these. Let me know what has been helpful to you, what I’ve missed, and what questions you have at morgan@planetarysunshade.org