01 Green Transition

MARCELINE DU PRIE / TU DELFT

Current climate policy efforts are insufficient to keep the earth’s average temperature rise below 2 Celsius, let alone 1.5. Resilient adaptation to global warming may well be insufficient and we need to consider cooling the earth by way of climate engineering. The technologies for this are not ready for deployment and deeper scientific insights are required. Moreover, a governance structure is needed taking into account ethical aspects of climate engineering. Deployment of climate engineering technologies will bring about impacts that go across national borders so an international approach is required. The United States has taken an initiative via DARPA. The European Union has not done so as yet. This may result in lagging behind in understanding, despite the high probability that climate engineering may be of geo-political strategic interest to the European Union.