Ott, Konrad (2018): On the Political Economy of Solar Radiation Management. In Front. Environ. Sci. 6, p. 29. DOI: 10.3389/fenvs.2018.00043.

"The paper concludes that the U.S. economic system has strong affinities to SRM supported by an emerging agency network that tries to establish a pro-SRM narrative and launch SAI research initiatives. There is recent evidence that SRM has found support from policy makers. To supporters of “green” variants of capitalism, the main claims of the article provide reasons against SAI-research. The article finishes with some remarks why SAI-research should be conditional."

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Mintenig, Jana; Khabbazan, Mohammad M.; Held, Hermann (2017): The Role of Bioenergy and Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) in the Case of Delayed Climate Policy – Insights from Cost-Risk Analysis. In Earth Syst. Dynam. Discuss., pp. 1–30. DOI: 10.5194/esd-2017-117.

"This study closes the loop by evaluating the impact of the technology option BECCS (Bioenergy and Carbon Capture and Storage) in light of delayed climate policy under CRA. The work is conducted using the Integrated Assessment Model MIND (Model of Investment and Technological Development). This interplay creates the following insights: An inclusion of BECCS avoids corner solutions that were previously identified for delay scenarios, yielding a larger window of opportunity for action to mitigate climate change. Moreover, it postpones mitigation efforts into the future and removes the pressure to shut down fossil fuel use immediately."

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Strefler, Jessica; Amann, Thorben; Bauer, Nicolas; Kriegler, Elmar; Hartmann, Jens (2018): Potential and costs of carbon dioxide removal by enhanced weathering of rocks. In Environ. Res. Lett. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aaa9c4.

"The chemical weathering of rocks currently absorbs about 1.1 Gt CO2 a-1 being mainly stored as bicarbonate in the ocean. An enhancement of this slow natural process could remove substantial amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere, aiming to offset some unavoidable anthropogenic emissions in order to comply with the Paris Agreement, while at same time it may decrease ocean acidification. We provide the first comprehensive assessment of economic costs, energy requirements, technical parameterization, and global and regional carbon removal potential. The crucial parameters defining this potential are the grain size and the weathering rates."

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Gunderson, Ryan; Petersen, Brian; Stuart, Diana (2018): A Critical Examination of Geoengineering. Economic and Technological Rationality in Social Context (Sustainability, 10).

"Substantial emissions reductions, unlike geoengineering, are costly, rely more on social-structural than technical changes, and are at odds with the current social order. Because of this, geoengineering will increasingly be considered a core response to climate change. In light of Herbert Marcuse’s critical theory, the promotion of geoengineering as a market-friendly and high-tech strategy is shown to reflect a society that cannot set substantive aims through reason and transforms what should be considered means (technology and economic production) into ends themselves. Such a condition echoes the first-generation Frankfurt School’s central thesis: instrumental rationality remains irrational."

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