Rapid Climate Change, Short-lived Forcers & Geoengineering: IES at the European Parliament to discuss about geoengineering with Jason Blackstock

On 9th November the Institute for Environmental Security organised the fourth in a series of events at the European Parliament run in collaboration with Nirj Deva, MEP, Vice President of the European Parliament Development Committee.

The speaker was Jason Blackstock, a Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and Visiting Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna. His subject was Towards Climate Security & Equity in 2020: Rapid Climate Change, Short-lived Forcers & Geoengineering.

Jason Blackstock stressed the urgency of understanding rapid climate change and in particular the impact of short lived climate forcers other than the greenhouse gasses dealt with by the UNFCCC.

Turning to geoengineering, Mr Blackstock argued that this could no longer be ignored by those negotiating on climate change. Technologies were now being developed that could cheaply alter aspects of the climate. He was at pains to point out that climate interactions are complex and difficult to predict. For example, spraying sulphates in the atmosphere would reduce the rise in global temperature, but it would be impossible to estimate the regional consequences on rainfall.

“Because of their potential to radically alter the climate system in a matter of years, rather than decades, the lack of adequate international governance for short-lived forcers, such as black carbon, and geoengineering present among the most serious climate security challenges we face today. At this moment we have no plan for handling the global governance aspects”.

Nirj Diva, MEP and Tom Spencer cross examined Mr Blackstock, who then answered lively questions from parliamentarians, parliamentary staff, NATO and the European Defence Agency.

Source: Institute for Environmental Security

Image Source: davedehetre