Newspaper commentary by Iris Hilbrich and Frank AdloffUsing geoengineering to fight global warming? The less we do now, the more unavoidable the use of high-risk technologies will become.

8 December 2021, by CSS

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CSS member Prof. Frank Adloff and Iris Hilbrich assume that geoengineering technologies will need to be used in the future. Therefore, in a commentary in the German daily newspaper taz, they call for an honest debate about the opportunities and risks, costs and benefits of geoengineering.

Geoengineering involves large-scale technological interventions in nature. The authors argue that either truly radical climate action is needed, or technological interventions in the Earth system, at least extremely expensive CO2 storage measures. However, it is unclear how effective geoengineering technologies are, while for some technologies the enormous costs and risks are clear to see. German political parties have different positions on possible major technological interventions in the environment. Still, with every year that global greenhouse gas emissions are not massively reduced, it becomes more likely that geoengineering will have to be pursued. Therefore, geoengineering technologies need to be explored, although there is a risk that the possibility of a technological solution could significantly slow down global CO2 reduction efforts. If geoengineering technologies are to be used, they must be discussed in advance in a broad debate.

The full article, published on 14 November 2021, can be found here [in German].