Actors, legitimacy, and governance challenges facing negative emissions and solar geoengineering technologies

Benjamin K Sovacool; Chad M Baum; Roberto Cantoni; Sean Low

doi:10.1080/09644016.2023.2210464

Actors, legitimacy, and governance challenges facing negative emissions and solar geoengineering technologies

Env Polit. 2023 May 16;33(2):340-365. doi: 10.1080/09644016.2023.2210464. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Benjamin K Sovacool^{1

2

3}, Chad M Baum¹, Roberto Cantoni^{2

4}, Sean Low¹

Affiliations

¹ Center for Energy Technologies, Department of Business Development and Technology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
² Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex Business School, Brighton-Falmer, UK.
³ Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali, Università di Napoli "Federico II", Naples, Italy.

Abstract

Institutional theory, behavioral science, sociology and even political science all emphasize the importance of actors in achieving social change. Despite this salience, the actors involved in researching, promoting, or deploying negative emissions and solar geoengineering technologies remain underexplored within the literature. In this study, based on a rigorous sample of semi-structured expert interviews (N = 125), we empirically explore the types of actors and groups associated with both negative emissions and solar geoengineering research and deployment. We investigate emergent knowledge networks and patterns of involvement across space and scale. We examine actors in terms of their support of, opposition to, or ambiguity regarding both types of climate interventions. We reveal incipient and perhaps unforeseen collections of actors; determine which sorts of actors are associated with different technology pathways to comprehend the locations of actor groups and potential patterns of elitism; and assess relative degrees of social acceptance, legitimacy, and governance.

Keywords: Carbon dioxide removal; climate justice; greenhouse gas removal; solar radiation management.

Grants and funding

This project has received funding from he European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the European Research Council (ERC) Grant Agreement No. 951542-GENIE-ERC-2020-SyG, “Geo Engineering and NegatIve Emissions pathways in Europe” (GENIE). The content of this deliverable does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed here in lies entirely with the author(s). Also, theproject was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Aarhus University 2021-13 as well as by the Ethics Committee at the European Research Council.