Disclosure-Based Governance for Climate Engineering Research

Abstract

Transparency has become a dominant theme within academic and policy discussions on climate engineering (CE) research governance. As CE research moves from modelling and laboratory studies to field experiments, there is a need to operationalize transparency; that is, to move from transparency in principle to transparency in practice. This, in turn, requires greater attention be paid to the purposes that CE research transparency is intended to serve since the ends sought, as well as the context in which they will operate, will drive the design features of disclosure mechanisms.

The objective of this paper is to focus attention on the implementation challenges that disclosure faces in the realm of CE research governance. To this end, we identify and elaborate on two distinct roles that disclosure-based governance is anticipated to play: minimization of the environmental and social risks associated with CE research; and to generate and maintain legitimacy in the research process itself. Drawing on that discussion, we then identify a number of key design features that disclosure-based governance will need to achieve those ends, and we argue in favour of an approach to disclosure-based governance that recognizes the iterative and inherently normative nature of CE governance and supports the development of a decentralized system of disclosure serving multiple ends.

Keywords: climate engineering, disclosure, transparency, geoengineering governance