Geoengineering
The Emmett Institute Celebrates Our “Genius” Alumna, Holly Buck
The latest MacArthur Fellows include Holly Jean Buck, a sociologist and energy policy researcher investigating the social, ethical, and political dimensions of emerging climate policies.
The Emmett Institute is bursting with pride today that our former fellow Holly Jean Buck, now Associate Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Buffalo, has just been awarded a 2026 MacArthur Fellowship. The MacArthur Fellowships, informally known as the “genius awards,” recognize exceptionally creative people to enable them to pursue their work …
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CONTINUE READINGLegislating Sunlight Reflection in Latin America and the Caribbean
UCLA’s ESI Project co-hosted a science-policy dialogue with Latin American and Caribbean parliamentarians.
In early June, UCLA’s ESI Project, in partnership with the Degrees Initiative, had the exciting opportunity to address the Parliament of Latin America and the Caribbean (PARLATINO), on the emerging issue of Earth system interventions, notably sunlight reflection or SRM. As an interparliamentary body with broad reach, PARLATINO is a forum for legislators from the …
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CONTINUE READINGPolicy Implications of Accelerating Warming
If warming is coming more quickly, we need to pick up the pace on policy responses.
There seems to be an emerging scientific consensus that the rate of global warming is rising. After screening out the effects of natural factors like El Niño, scientists have concluded that the pace of warming has roughly doubled since the 1970s. What does this tell us about policy? Some of the implications are more obvious than others, and at least one implication may be unsettling for some climate advocates. Most obviously, we need to accelerate our efforts to carbon emissions. We will be closing in on possible tipping points faster than expected. Climate impacts that we might have expected twenty years from now could hit in half that time.
CONTINUE READINGEarth is Getting Darker. Here’s Why That’s Alarming
Some climate scientists are calling attention to yet another alarming recent climate trend: Earth’s declining reflectivity and what it may mean for feedback effects on future warming.
Some recent Earth observations are spreading new alarm among climate scientists. The observations have been reported in many scientific and environmental outlets, and have provoked a fair amount of confusion and some misrepresentation. Some scientists have been informally calling these observations “the most important climate risk you’ve never heard of.” But they have not yet …
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CONTINUE READINGA Science-Policy Dialogue on SRM for Latin America
Key takeaways from the UCLA Emmett Institute’s convening on Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) in Santiago, Chile.
Though interventions like solar radiation modification (SRM) are increasingly breaking into mainstream conversations of climate change, the charged nature of this topic and political extremes that have characterized discussion around it make it difficult for policymakers and decision-makers to find neutral spaces to learn about existing research, ask questions, and brainstorm policy ideas with colleagues and trusted experts. Creating that neutral space was the goal of an Emmett …
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CONTINUE READINGThoughts on COP30
What have we learned about the future of climate negotiations?
we can only expect incremental progress from the U.N. unless or until China takes a leadership role, particularly while the U.S. is also on the sideline. Incremental progress is better than no progress, obviously. But we’re going to have to look elsewhere for productive international action.
Basically, that’s going to have to rely on something less than the international consensus that drives COP. That means doubling down on some other options: bilateral climate agreements between countries, action by coalitions of interested countries, and subnational agreements including states, provinces, and cities around the world.
CONTINUE READINGShould Private Firms Be Involved in Cooling the Planet?
Private firms like Stardust Solutions want to get in on planet-cooling interventions. Here’s the OK, the bad, and the ugly about startup involvement.
A story at Heatmap News last month reported that an Israeli-American startup firm, Stardust Solutions, has received $60 million in venture funding for a new type of particle they propose can be used to inject in the stratosphere to reflect a little sunlight and (temporarily, imperfectly) reduce global-average heating from greenhouse gases. The company aims …
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CONTINUE READINGNew York Climate Weak
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
Now is the time for courage. Now is not the time to pull punches or pull speakers. We need more speech — not enforced silence. That’s why I’m not a big fan of shutting down campus speakers, even those who might spread climate obstruction. Like Vicki Hollub, the CEO of Occidental Petroleum, who was being …
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CONTINUE READINGRight-wing populist environmentalism?
The future of environmentalism may include a right-wing, populist strain that is heavily NIMBY
While there is a lot of focus on left-wing NIMBYs in public discourse, there’s also a lot of right-wing NIMBY mobilization too. For instance, the conservative California city of Huntington Beach is leading the resistance to state efforts to require upzoning to facilitate housing. Conservative rural communities are often the locus of opposition to both …
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CONTINUE READINGA Landmark Geoengineering Conversation in the Global South
The UCLA Emmett Institute helps sponsor and organize the Degrees Global Forum, the largest event of its kind to date.
I post periodically about developments in the debate over solar geoengineering (SRM) and its potential role in response to climate change. News accounts may suggest that this debate moves fast, but it has three enduring, large-scale themes. First, SRM presents high stakes for climate risks and response – which most governments thus far have been …
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