BERLIN — It’s Plan B in the fight against climate change: cooling the planet by sucking heat-trapping CO2 from the air or reflecting sunlight back into space.
Called geoengineering, it’s considered mad science by opponents. Supporters say it would be foolish to ignore it, since plan A – slashing carbon emissions from fossil fuels – is moving so slowly.
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The U.N.’s expert panel on climate change is under pressure from both sides this week as it considers whether geoengineering should be part of the tool-kit that governments use to keep global warming in check.
Russia, in particular, has been pushing the panel to place more emphasis on such techniques in a key document for policy makers being finalized in Berlin this week.
Drafts leaked before the conference only mentioned one of the options, removing CO2 from the air and storing it underground. Russia, a major oil and gas producer, said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change should also mention solar radiation management, which could include everything from covering open surfaces with reflective materials or placing sun-mirrors in orbit around the Earth.
“It is expedient to give a short description of the approach and mention the major ‘pro and contra’,” Russia said in comments submitted to the IPCC and seen by The Associated Press.
But even advocates of studying geoengineering express doubts.
“Really at the present moment there is a high level of uncertainty surrounding all of these options,” said Steve Rayner, co-director of Oxford University’s geoengineering program. Still, he said it’s worth continuing to research geoengineering “to get a better sense of whether there’s any merit in pursuing these technologies further.”
After discussions among governments and scientists, a mention of geoengineering was added last year to the first of four summaries of the IPCC’s authoritative assessment on climate change. They are now working on the third one, which deals specifically with fighting climate change.
The document is important because it will be used as scientific guidance for governments as they negotiate a new global climate pact, set to be adopted in 2015.
Some environmental activists watching the talks in Berlin want the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to scratch references to geoengineering altogether. They worry that such technologies would be ineffective, possibly harmful and delay efforts to shift the world’s energy system from oil and coal to low-carbon energy sources.
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