Overview of the Integrated Assessment of Geoengineering Proposals (IAGP), UK research project.

Abstract:

Integrated Assessment of Geoengineering Proposals (IAGP, www.iagp.ac.uk ) is a multidisciplinary research project involving seven UK institutions. This four year research project (completing in Feb 2015) has bought together a broad range of expertise, from climate modelling to philosophy and engineering to public perceptions to conduct an objective, policy-relevant assessment of geoengineering.

This paper will present an overview of our major research findings, concentrating on aspects related to solar radiation management. Findings of our five inter-linked programmes will be presented:

1. Framework development – developing a methodology for comparing across different technologies.

2. Engaging with publics and stakeholders – illustrating how public and stakeholder views have informed the development of the framework and the way we assess geoengineering.

3. Using climate modelling to evaluate geoengineering technologies – experiments for several different SRM techniques are compared within the HadGEM2 climate model. These include aerosol injection into the stratosphere as well as ocean and land albedo changes.

4. Earth climate controllability – examining how techniques from control engineering can be applied to geoengineering and the implications for decision and policy-making.

5. Critical reflection on the development of our research agenda and views.

These five strands of research will be bought together to illustrate responsible innovation of geoengineering research.