Playing God with climate: the EU’s geoengineering conundrum

The Earth is heating up – and fast. This year is set to become the warmest on record, with global surface temperatures exceeding 1.5°C each of the past 12 months (1). In fact, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently warned that the world is on track to reach a ‘hellish’ 3°C of global warming by the end of the century (2). While CO2 emissions reductions are well underway as part of the energy transition process this may prove insufficient to forestall the worst consequences of global warming. Therefore, geoengineering – a deliberate, large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems – has been increasingly floated as a potential solution to the climate crisis. So far, the EU has excluded certain geoengineering approaches from its climate agenda due to their controversial nature. However, as global temperatures continue to rise and societies become painfully aware of the sweltering future that awaits, the EU must take a more active role in the debate over whether geoengineering could provide deliverance from our climate woes.