Saving the Planet: Overcoming Challenges of Emissions Monitoring and Climate Engineering

Wednesday, March 21, 2018 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDT (UTC–04:00)
Public Event: Community Event
Mar
21

As governments, industry and civil society struggle to achieve the necessary emission reductions to address climate change, scientists are increasingly looking at new technological pathways such as direct carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere, solar geoengineering (cooling the planet by reflecting heat away from the Earth) and the use of sophisticated satellite technologies capable of monitoring greenhouse gas emissions remotely. While a broader portfolio of climate response actions and compliance tools may significantly contribute to meeting global climate objectives of limiting  warming to well below 2 degrees celsius, these technologies come with considerable physical, social and governance risks.  This talk, lead by climate law experts Timiebi Aganaba-Jeanty and Neil Craik, explores the international legal and ethical dimensions of these important but controversial technology pathways and considers how Canada might approach the governance challenges connected to these technologies.

In advance of this lecture we invite you to read Timiebi's latest paper on "Satellites, Remote Sensing and Big Data" and Neil's paper on "Developing a National Strategy for Climate Engineering Research in Canada".

Event Speakers

Neil Craik is a CIGI senior fellow. He is an associate professor at the University of Waterloo where he teaches and researches in the fields of international and Canadian environmental law.  

Timiebi Aganaba is an assistant professor of space and society in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University.