Introduction to the Special Issue: ‘Governing Climate-altering Approaches’

Abstract

While awareness of the global climate emergency is growing, so too are greenhouse gas emissions and a persistent gap remains between international commitments and the 1.5–2°C goal of the Paris Agreement. Additional climate-altering approaches are being considered to reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide removal) or the amount of absorbed solar energy in the climate system (solar radiation modification) but they face multiple uncertainties and knowledge gaps relating to their feasibility, acceptability, sustainability and governance. This special issue presents new insights relating to the governance of climate-altering approaches together with possible ways to address knowledge and governance gaps in future.