Could lessons from medical research ethics inform better conversations and governance for climate engineering research

TL;DR

The paper explores how lessons from medical research ethics could help improve discussions and governance around climate engineering.

Contribution

It proposes applying insights from medical ethics to address challenges in climate engineering research governance.

Findings

Climate engineering discussions face significant challenges in scientific spaces.

Medical research ethics offers potential solutions like oversight mechanisms and specialized review systems.

Defining boundaries and introducing oversight could help manage climate engineering research.

Abstract

Conversations about climate engineering are difficult to have in many spaces. While public debate deserves exploration, we focus on the difficulties scientific discussions around climate engineering face. For inspiration on how to improve this contested space we turn specifically to the history of controversial medical research. Some ways to move forward might consist of establishing an oversight mechanism, defining boundaries and introducing a specialised review system.