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7 CCLR 101 (2013)
Climate Engineering Research: A Precautionary Response to Climate Change

handle is hein.journals/cclr2013 and id is 109 raw text is: Climate Engineering Research: A Precautionary Response to Climate Change? Jesse L. Reynolds and Floor Fleurke* In the face of dire forecasts for anthropogenic climate change, climate engineering is increasingly discussed as a possible additional set of responses to reduce climate change's threat. These proposals have been controversial, in part because they - like climate change itself - pose uncertain risks to the environment and human well-being. Under these challenging circumstances of potential catastrophe and risk-risk trade-off it is initially unclear to what extent precaution is applicable. We examine what precau- tion is and is not, and make a prima facie case that climate engineering may provide means to reduce climate risks. When precaution is applied to the currently pertinent matter of small to moderate scale climate engineering field tests, we conclude that precaution encourages them, despite their potential risks. 1. Introduction The likely impacts of anthropogenic climate change on humans and the environment are vast. Mitigat- ing the risks through greenhouse gas emissions abatement requires overcoming an extremely chal- lenging collective action problem. However, efforts thus far to reduce these risks have been disappoint- ing. As the evidence and probable severity of climate risks have mounted, a wider range of options is now being considered. Efforts toward emissions abate- ment were the first global response, and then adapt- ing society and ecosystems to new climates became a second legitimate category of action. Now, propos- als to develop the means to intentionally intervene on massive scales in global physical, chemical, and biological systems in order to counterbalance cli- mate change are being seriously discussed. While diverse, these proposed climate engineering (CE) * Jesse L. Reynolds, M.S. is a Ph.D. candidate and Floor Fleurke, Ph.D. is assistant professor for European environmental law, both in the Department of European and International Public Law, Faculty of Law, University ofTilburg, The Netherlands. Correspon- dence can be directed to J.L.Reynolds@uvt.ni. 1 Daniel Bodansky, May We Engineer the Climate?, 33 Climatic Change (1996), 309, at 312. or geoengineering methods are controversial for several reasons, including the contention that they pose uncertain but potentially serious risks to humans and the environment. In debates over CE, precaution is often invoked. Daniel Bodansky predicted that precaution would be invoked frequently and loudly at the inter- national level and possibly contribute to an inter- national prohibition.' The Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity cited the precautionary approach in a nonbinding advisory statement against CE activities that may affect biodiversity.2 Moreover detractors of CE also often cite precaution as a rationale for opposing CE research and/or deployment.3 However, in this article, we assert that a precautionary approach favours improving knowledge about CE options through research, including field experiments, but in a manner that recognizes risks. 2 Decision X/33.8(w), Biodiversity and Climate Change: Report of the Tenth Meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Doc. UNEP/CBD/COP/10/27, 20 January 2011. 3 See, e.g., ETC Group, The ABCs of Ensuring Precaution on Geoengineering, 5 October 2010, available on the Internet at <http://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/geoE ETC4COP1 _fina4web.pdf> (last accessed on 6 March 2013). CCLR 2|2013 Climate Engineering Research | 101

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