Deliverable / 29 November 2024
Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) encompasses a range of hypothetical techniques that, if applied at scale, have the potential to temporarily decrease the most immediate effects of climate change. If considered in the future, SRM techniques could be applied as a temporary complement to long-term emissions reductions and carbon removal solutions – e.g., by ‘peak-shaving’ or slowing the rate of global warming while long-term mitigation strategies are implemented.
In all cases, SRM should not be viewed as a permanent solution or viable substitute of climate mitigation strategies. Furthermore, much of the scientific community is adamant that SRM deployment is not currently considered an option. At the same time, there is a growing interest in researching SRM’s risks and potential climate-related benefits. The conversation on the feasibility and risks of SRM research must be embedded in a broader conversation on ethics and governance. This principle is a fundamental baseline for the Co-CREATE project. But first we need a shared understanding of the object of conversation: what SRM techniques and what experiments are we examining?
This deliverable is a bundle of three scoping notes, providing a common basis of technical understanding of SRM and its possible forms of research. Each note outlines the current state of knowledge on three main SRM proposals: Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB), as well as Cirrus Cloud Thinning and Mixed-Phase Cloud Thinning (CCT and MCT).
The deliverable also maps out the experimental SRM research and testing that is currently being conducted, planned, or considered. It provides a comprehensive list of past and ongoing SRM field tests, along with an overview of planned field tests. This includes analogous activities not necessarily classified as SRM but with relevant similarities (such as cloud seeding), as well as activities particularly relevant to the Arctic and Global South regions. This list offers a detailed overview of the current state of SRM science, which is further examined in subsequent Co-CREATE Work Packages. The ideas of what future SRM experiments might entail and the issues they may raise are explored in Deliverable 2.3, while the applicable legal frameworks for SRM are examined in Deliverable 2.2
Suggested reference: Redmond Roche, B.H. and Irvine, P.J. (2024) Deliverable 2.1: Scoping Note on the State of Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) Research, Field Tests, and Related Activities. Co-CREATE Project. [link]