Task Force on Geoengineering

New Report: Task Force On Climate Remediation Research

In early 2010, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) launched a Task Force on Geoengineering. This effort is aimed at exploring the emerging policy and political issues raised by research activities designed to intentionally alter the earth’s natural environment to counteract the effects of climate change. The study of these techniques has moved from the fringes of scientific speculation to the center of an increasingly intense evaluation by scientists and policymakers. For example, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science & Technology held a series of hearings in 2009-10 on geoengineering and numerous scientific societies around the world have begun to examine the field.

BPC convened Task Force is bringing together experts from a variety of disciplines to explore the implications of geoengineering for the United States and the issues related to geoengineering research and governance. The task force is currently preparing a report on this subject, and expects to issue recommendations in early 2011 to assist policymakers in engaging with this critical issue. The chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Bart Gordon, has commended and encouraged BPC’s effort (see below).

Geoengineering is a broad term which generally refers to at least two major families of technologies:

  • solar radiation management (SRM) techniques, which reduce the Earth’s absorption of solar radiation by blocking or reflecting a small fraction of sunlight; and
  • carbon dioxide removal (CDR) techniques, which reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations by using chemical or biological processes to capture and sequester carbon dioxide (and potentially other greenhouse gases).

Task Force Members:

Jane Long, Co-Chair
Associate Director-at-Large, Energy and Environment Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Stephen Rademaker, Co-Chair
Senior Counsel, BGR Government Affairs, LLC
Former Assistant Secretary of State

James G. Anderson
Philip S. Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, Harvard University

Richard Elliot Benedick
President, National Council for Science and the Environment
Former Ambassador and chief U.S. negotiator for the 1987 Montreal Protocol

Ken Caldeira
Senior Scientist, Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution, Stanford University

Joe Chaisson
Research and Technical Director, Clean Air Task Force

David Goldston
Director of Government Affairs, Natural Resources Defense Council
Former Staff Director for the House Science Committee; Columnist on science policy for Nature

Steven Hamburg
Chief Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund

David Keith
Director, ISEEE Energy and Environmental Systems Group, University of Calgary

Ron Lehman
Director, Center for Global Security Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Frank Loy
Former Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs

Granger Morgan
Lord Chair Professor in Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

Daniel Sarewitz
Director, Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, Arizona State University

Thomas Schelling
Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland

John Shepherd
Professorial Research Fellow in Earth System Science, School of Ocean & Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton

David Victor
Professor, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego

David Whelan
Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Chief Scientist and Vice President-General Manager, Deputy to the President of IDS Advanced Systems, Boeing Corporation
Former Director of the Tactical Technology Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

David E. Winickoff
Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley

Attached files