Geoengineering - cool plan or megalomania?

The Institute of Economics will hold a meeting of its Seminar Series on Tuesday, December 10, 2019: Claudia Wieners, from the Institute of Economics of Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, will present the paper Geoengineering - cool plan or megalomania?

Abstract:

With CO2 emissions still rising, and the current national pledges on emission reduction being insufficient to keep global warming below 2 degrees, some scientists suggest that "Geoengineering" - large-scale human intervention in the Earth system - might offer a solution to the climate problem. Couldn't we mimic explosive volcanic eruptions by injecting a reflective veil into the high atmosphere to block part of the incoming sunlight ("Stratospheric Aerosol Injection"/SAI)? Or afforest the Sahara desert to bind CO2? After an introduction to the basic physics of global warming and Geoengineering, the author will present a very tentative cost-benefit-analysis of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection using the famous (and highly debatable) DICE model. The result suggests that SAI may be a valuable complement, but not a replacement, of CO2 emission reduction. However, the parameters used in the model are ill-constrained; therefore, the author will summarise some of the pressing questions that need to be addressed before a well-founded decision for or against Geoengineering can be taken.