Future Proofing Our Climate and Weather
If an abrupt alteration in a climate system were to unfold, we would have no tools to mitigate the effects. Scientific, engineering and social science research could provide practical and responsible intervention and adaptation options to mitigate the impacts of climate disasters.
Core beliefs
The core beliefs that underpin this opportunity space:
Climate tipping points (abrupt and potentially irreversible changes to the Earth’s climate) like the melting of large ice sheets or sudden changes in ocean currents have happened in the past. We don’t know when the next one might happen or how long it would take to feel the effects → but we do know that we have very limited options for how we might intervene to avert disaster, or adapt to a drastically altered climate if the impacts manifest on short timescales.
Ethical and governable interventions to prevent tipping points, or adaptations to adjust to a post tipping point climate, could be possible → but an enormous amount of research is needed to determine how such approaches could work and what their regional and global effects might be.
De-fossilisation is imperative; however, the risk of crossing tipping points in the coming decades has led to increasing discussion of climate interventions, such as solar radiation modification. There is a risk that these interventions become prematurely embedded in climate change roadmaps, or dismissed as infeasible, before their basic science has been properly explored → a unique combination of push-pull factors suggests that now is the time for society to undertake responsible and transparent research into our potential options.
Observations
Some signposts as to why we see this area as important, underserved, and ripe.
Download the opportunity space as a PDF here.
Programme spotlight: Exploring Climate Cooling
Climate change could cause global temperatures to increase by several degrees by the end of the century, precipitating climate tipping points with serious and irreversible consequences.
While the only sustainable way to reduce the risk of such tipping events is through decarbonisation, the risk of crossing one or more tipping points in the near future has driven increased interest in approaches to actively reduce global temperatures in the shorter term.
By collecting critical and currently missing data, this programme will look to answer the fundamental scientific questions required to reach more definitive conclusions on whether any potential approaches for cooling the Earth could be feasible, scalable, or safe.
Meet the programme team
Mark is an electrochemist with a 15-year career developing sustainable fuels in the drive towards net zero. He joined ARIA from the University of Glasgow, where he is Professor of Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Technology.
"We know that climate tipping points with very severe consequences have happened in the past, and such events will almost certainly happen again in the future. Yet we are not at all prepared for such eventualities. What options (technological and non-technological) are there for safeguarding society from future climate disasters?"
Explore our other opportunity spaces
Our opportunity spaces are designed as an open invitation for researchers from across disciplines and institutions to learn with us and contribute – a variety of perspectives are just what we need to change what’s possible.