Conducting more inclusive solar geoengineering research: A feminist science framework

TL;DR

This paper proposes a feminist science framework to make solar geoengineering research more inclusive, transparent, and aware of implicit biases, thereby improving the quality and societal relevance of the research.

Contribution

It introduces an adoptable feminist science-based framework for inclusive solar geoengineering research and demonstrates its application to enhance transparency and critique.

Findings

Retrospective application improves transparency of existing studies.

Framework reveals implicit values and biases in research.

Recommendations promote inclusive practices in the research community.

Abstract

Solar geoengineering, or deliberate climate modification, has been receiving increased attention in recent years. Given the far-reaching consequences of any potential solar geoengineering deployments, it is prudent to identify inherent biases, blind spots, and other potential issues at all stages of the research process. Here we articulate a feminist science-based framework to concretely describe how solar geoengineering researchers can be more inclusive of different perspectives, in the process illuminating potential implicit bias and enhancing the conclusions that can be gained from their studies. Importantly, this framework is an adoptable method of practice that can be refined, with the aim of conducting better research in solar geoengineering. As an illustration, we retrospectively apply this framework to a well-read solar geoengineering study, improving transparency by revealing its implicit values, conclusions made from its evidence base, and the methodologies that study pursues. We conclude with a set of recommendations for the geoengineering research community whereby more inclusive research can become a regular part of practice. Throughout this process, we illustrate how feminist science scholars can use this approach to study climate modeling.