Climate Change, Climate Engineering, and the ‘Global Poor’: What Does Justice Require?

Abstract

In recent work, Joshua Horton and David Keith argue on distributive and consequentialist grounds that research into solar radiation management (SRM) geoengineering is justified because the resulting knowledge has the potential to benefit everyone, particularly the ‘global poor.’ I argue that this view overlooks procedural and recognitional justice, and thus relegates to the background questions of how SRM research should be governed. In response to Horton and Keith, I argue for a multidimensional approach to geoengineering justice, which entails that questions of how to govern SRM research should be addressed from the very outset–that is, now.