Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

White House Urges Research on Geoengineering to Combat Global Warming

The New York Times: A White House road map for federally funded climate research has for the first time recommended research into geoengineering, the concept of intervening in nature to slow or reverse global warming.

The document, an update of a report that lays out a plan for climate-related research at 13 federal agencies until 2021, calls for studies related to the two most-discussed approaches to geoengineering: distributing chemicals in the atmosphere to reflect more heat-producing sunlight away from the earth, and removing carbon dioxide from the air so the atmosphere traps less heat.

The report was submitted to Congress this week by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which was established in 1990 and is overseen by the executive branch. The program, the report notes, “provides insight into the science needed to understand potential pathways for climate intervention or geoengineering and the possible consequences of any such measures, both intended and unintended.”

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