Law Commons^™

An emerging set of proposed technologies to reduce risks from climate change stands to dramatically alter the international politics of climate change and potentially much more. These large-scale intentional interventions in natural systems, typically called ‘climate engineering’ or ‘geoengineering’, may be able to break through the collective action problem of greenhouse gas emissions cuts and greatly reduce climate risks rapidly and at low cost. At the same time, they pose their own environmental and social risks while potentially turning international climate politics ‘upside down’. Tensions brought about by climate engineering could conceivably lead to international conflict and pose a threat …