Reinvent Our Approach to Climate Change

How do we evaluate the risks and rewards of geoengineering approaches to climate change?
When it comes to climate change, the potential problems often seem to far outnumber the potential solutions. There’s the collective action problem: No one nation or actor can make much of a dent on the problem. Then there’s the time lag problem: Even if we did everything we could to stop global warming, we might not see the results of those efforts for decades, which makes it difficult to generate political support in democratic societies accustomed to immediate gratification. This roundtable discussed the viability of geoengineering approaches to climate change. One geoengineering approach we explored involves slowly sucking carbon out of the atmosphere, like trees and oceans do over time. The other approach focuses on blocking a portion of sunlight on its way into the atmosphere, like dust particles from erupting volcanoes do naturally. As we discussed various options, we kept in mind the overarching question: How might we shape a system of global governance that’s equipped to face the challenges that lie ahead?