Event
COP27: Panel Discussion on the Ethics of Climate Engineering
Online participation
As the latest contribution from UNESCO, the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology’s endeavour to study climate engineering technologies is timely as the research, development and possible deployment of these technologies could become life-changing issues for the present and future generations, both in a positive and negative way. A COP27 event on climate engineering hosted by UNESCO and framed by COMEST’s upcoming report will therefore present a unique opportunity to bring ethics as well as different scientific, social and cultural perspectives on climate engineering to the fore, ensuring that inclusive and state-of-the-art based discussions are taking place within the international community.
UNESCO, with its leading role in promoting ethical science, continues to exercise its mandate as a laboratory of ideas and agenda-setter to push the ethical principles related to climate change, including prevention of harm, precautionary approach, equity and justice, sustainable development, solidarity and scientific knowledge and integrity in decision-making, as articulated in the Declaration of Ethical Principles in relation to Climate Change (2017). The event will also serve as a venue to put this normative instrument into practice, which should continue to serve as a moral compass in guiding us in our discussions on climate change.
Background
The world is currently on track to hit 1.5 °C by 2030. If this is not fixed during this critical decade, the Paris Agreement goals will soon be beyond reach and the planet is likely to see global temperatures rise by 2-4 °C (3-7 °F) by the end of the century.
Arguments are increasingly being made for the consideration of other actions to counter the heating effect of greenhouse gases in the event that efforts to slow the rate of temperature rise are insufficient or unsuccessful. Such actions, including the removal of greenhouse gases and the reduction of the heating effects of these gases, are generally known to be a form of climate engineering or geoengineering.
The consideration of such methods, however, raises a host of ethical concerns and questions, which have already begun to attract some attention from the international scientific community. For instance, the report of the IPPC, released in February 2022, pays particular attention to the risks that arise from climate engineering, such as carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification techniques. Nevertheless, formal discussions on geoengineering, particularly with regard to the ethical considerations involved, remain rather latent and preliminary.
Participants
Moderator
- Gabriela Ramos is the Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, where she oversees the institution's contributions to building inclusive societies. Her mandate includes tackling economic inequalities of income and opportunity, and promoting social inclusion and gender equality. She also oversees the youth support agenda, promotion of values through sport, fight against racism and discrimination, and ethics of science, including of neurotechnology and the internet of things.
Panelists
- Inés Camilloni is an Argentinian climatologist, Professor at the University of Buenos Aires, Researcher at the Center for Research on the Sea and Atmosphere, Member of the scientific advisory committee of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research Since (IAI), Resident in the Solar Geoengineering Research Program of Harvard University and Member of COMEST since 2022.
- Laurence Tubiana is CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and a Professor at Sciences Po, Paris. Before joining the ECF, Laurence was France’s Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21, and as such a key architect of the landmark Paris Agreement. Following COP21 and through COP22, she was appointed UN High-Level Champion for climate action.
- Johan Hattingh is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch and was the President of the UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group (AHEG) tasked to prepare a draft of the Declaration of Ethical Principles in Relation to Climate Change (adopted in 2017). In the last thirty years he has specialized in Applied Ethics, Ideology Critique, Development Ethics, and particularly in Environmental Ethics and Climate Change Ethics.
- Donald A. Brown is a Scholar in Residence for Sustainability Ethics and Law through Widener’s Environmental Law and Sustainability Center. He is a world-renowned expert in environmental science and more specifically in the international climate change ethics movement. In 2019, Dr. Brown received the UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science for his work on climate change ethics.
