Rethinking climate engineering categorization in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation

Olivier Boucher (1) , Piers M. Forster (2) , Nicolas Gruber (3) , Minh Ha-Duong (4) , Mark G. Lawrence (5) , Timothy M. Lenton (6) , Achim Maas (7) , Naomi E. Vaughan (8, 9)

1 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
2 SATIE - Systèmes et Applications des Technologies de l'Information et de l'Energie
3 IBP - Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics [ETH Zürich]
4 CIRED - centre international de recherche sur l'environnement et le développement
5 Concordia - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry - Concordia University - 7141 Sherbrooke W., Montreal, Canada H4B 1R6
6 Chemistry
7 IASS - Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies [Potsdam]
8 Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
9 School of Environmental Sciences [Norwich]

The portfolio of approaches to respond to the challenges posed by anthropogenic climate change has broadened beyond mitigation and adaptation with the recent discussion of potential climate engineering options. How to define and categorize climate engineering options has been a recurring issue in both public and specialist discussions. We assert here that current definitions of mitigation, adaptation and climate engineering are ambiguous, overlap with each other and thus contribute to confusing the discourse on how to tackle anthropogenic climate change. We propose a new and more inclusive categorization into five different classes: anthropogenic emissions reductions (of short-lived climate agents and long-lived greenhouse gases, abbreviated AER, territorial or domestic removal of atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases (D-GGR), trans-territorial or trans-boundary removal of atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases (T-GGR), regional to planetary targeted climate and environmental modification (TCM), and climate change adaptation measures (including local targeted climate and environmental modification, abbreviated CCAM). Thus, we suggest that techniques for domestic greenhouse gas removal might better be thought of as forming a separate category alongside more traditional mitigation techniques that consist of emissions reductions. Local targeted climate modification can be seen as an adaptation measure as long as there are no detectable remote environmental effects. In both cases, the scale and intensity of action are essential attributes from the technological, climatic and political viewpoints. Whilst some of the boundaries in this revised classification depend on policy and judgement, it offers a foundation for debating on how to define and categorize climate engineering options and differentiate them from both mitigation and adaptation measures to climate change.

Mots clés: emission control; engineering; environmental effect; greenhouse gas; carbon dioxide; climate change

Domaines: Climatologie; Milieux et Changements globaux; Ingénierie de l'environnement; Etudes de l'environnement; Sciences de l'environnement; Ecologie, Environnement

Olivier Boucher, Piers M. Forster, Nicolas Gruber, Minh Ha-Duong, Mark G. Lawrence, et al.. Rethinking climate engineering categorization in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2014, 5 (1), pp.23-25. ⟨10.1002/wcc.261⟩. ⟨hal-00870038⟩