International governance of solar radiation management: does the ENMOD Convention deserve a closer look?

• Published in: Carbon & Climate Law Review
• Main Authors: McGee, J, Brent, K, McDonald, J, Heyward, C
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH 2020
• Subjects: Law and Legal Studies; Environmental and resources law; Climate change law; Carbon and Climate Law Review
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.21552/cclr/2020/4/8; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/142349

Anthropogenic climate change has warmed the planet to over 1C above pre-industriallevels. The biophysical and social impacts of this warming are taking hold, with sea-levelrise, melting of polar ice, more extreme weather events, drought, and wildfire. Solarradiation management (SRM) technologies are a set of ideas for increasing thereflectivity of the earth at various scales to offset the effects of anthropogenic climatechange. The most ambitious SRM idea involves injecting aerosols into the atmosphere tocool the planet on a global scale. However, regional-scale SRM ideas are also beinginvestigated to lessen climate impacts at regional and local scales. Internationalgovernance of SRM research and development is a key issue for managing risk andbuilding social license for these technologies. Despite this, there has been very limitedinternational legal and institutional development on SRM. It may therefore be better tostart working with existing rules and institutions of international law than wait forsignificant new treaty development to govern the issue. This article examines the potentialof the ENMOD Convention - an overlooked Cold War arms control treaty on the use ofenvironmental modification technologies - to contribute to international governance ofSRM.