Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Climate engineering reconsidered

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 527–529 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Stratospheric injection of sulphate aerosols has been advocated as an emergency geoengineering measure to tackle dangerous climate change, or as a stop-gap until atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are reduced. But it may not prove to be the game-changer that some imagine.

In the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, virtually every country agreed to stabilize concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere at a level that would avoid dangerous climate change. Since then, however, international cooperation in limiting emissions has been ineffectual and concentrations have continued to rise. Recently, there has been more discussion of limiting climate change by geoengineering, a term taken here to be synonymous with solar radiation management, through the injection of sulphate aerosols in the stratosphere. The technique is even mentioned in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 2013 Summary for Policymakers1.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The ecological effects of solar radiation management using sulphate aerosols.

JLOKRANTZ/AZOTE

References

  1. IPCC Summary for Policymakers in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis (eds Stocker, T. F. et al.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013).

  2. Crutzen, P. J. Climatic Change 77, 211–219 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Keith, D. W. A Case for Climate Engineering (Boston Review Books, 2013).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  4. Vaughan, N. E. & Lenton, T. M. Climatic Change 109, 745–790 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Robock, A. Bull. Atomos. Sci. 64, 14–18 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Barrett, S. & Dannenberg, A. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 17372–17376 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Irvine, P. J., Sriver, R. L. & Keller, K. Nature Clim. Change 2, 97–100 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Pongratz, J., Lobell, D. B., Cao, L. & Caldeira, K. Nature Clim. Change 2, 101–105 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gillett, N. P., Arora, V. K., Zickfeld, K., Marshall, S. J. & Merryfield, W. J. Nature Geosci. 4, 83–87 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. McCusker, K. E., Battisti, D. S. & Bitz, C. M. J. Clim. 25, 3096–3116 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Irvine, P. J., Lunt, D. J., Stone, E. J. & Ridgwell, A. Environ. Res. Lett. 4, http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045109 (2009).

  12. Scheffer, M. et al. Science 338, 344–348 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Lenton, T. M. Nature Clim. Change 1, 201–209 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Seidel, D. J., Feingold, G., Jacobson, A. R. & Loeb, N. Nature Clim.Change 4, 93–98 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Rau, G. H., MacLeod, E. L. & Hoegh-Guldberg, O. Nature Clim. Change 2, 720–724 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Kravitz, B. et al. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 118, 8320–8332 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics and the Global Economic Dynamics and the Biosphere program, both of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, supported the authors' collaboration.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, 10027, New York, USA

    Scott Barrett

  2. College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, EX4 4QE, Exeter, UK

    Timothy M. Lenton

  3. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics, London, WC2A 2AE, UK

    Antony Millner & Alessandro Tavoni

  4. Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Stephen Carpenter

  5. School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, Arizona, USA

    John M. Anderies

  6. Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, 99775, Alaska, USA

    F. Stuart Chapin III

  7. Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, SE104 05, Sweden

    Anne-Sophie Crépin & Carl Folke

  8. Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, CA, USA

    Gretchen Daily & Paul Ehrlich

  9. Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SE-106 91, Sweden

    Anne-Sophie Crépin, Carl Folke & Victor Galaz

  10. Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, 4811, QLD, Australia

    Terry Hughes

  11. Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SE-106 91, Sweden

    Nils Kautsky

  12. Department of Geography, University of Louvain, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Eric F. Lambin

  13. Department of Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, 94304, California, USA

    Rosamond Naylor

  14. Department of Economics, University of Oslo, 0317, Oslo, Norway

    Karine Nyborg

  15. Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, 55108, Minnesota, USA

    Stephen Polasky

  16. Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, NL-6700 AA, Wageningen, Netherlands

    Marten Scheffer

  17. Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    James Wilen

  18. Department of International and European Economic Studies, Athens University of Economics and Business, GR10434, Athens, Greece

    Anastasios Xepapadeas

  19. Department of Economics, Tilburg University, 5000 LE, Tilburg, Netherlands

    Aart de Zeeuw

Authors
  1. Scott Barrett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Timothy M. Lenton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Antony Millner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Alessandro Tavoni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Stephen Carpenter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. John M. Anderies
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. F. Stuart Chapin III
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Anne-Sophie Crépin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Gretchen Daily
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Paul Ehrlich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Carl Folke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Victor Galaz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Terry Hughes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Nils Kautsky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Eric F. Lambin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Rosamond Naylor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Karine Nyborg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. Stephen Polasky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  19. Marten Scheffer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  20. James Wilen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  21. Anastasios Xepapadeas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  22. Aart de Zeeuw
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Scott Barrett.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Barrett, S., Lenton, T., Millner, A. et al. Climate engineering reconsidered. Nature Clim Change 4, 527–529 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2278

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2278

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing