A Solar Geoengineering and Global Income Inequality Paradox

Exploring heterogeneity in the impacts of solar geoengineering is a fundamental step towards understanding the risk tradeoff associated with a geoengineering option. To evaluate the impacts of solar geoengineering and greenhouse gas-driven climate change on equal terms, we apply macroeconomic impact models that have been widely applied to climate change impacts assessment. Consistent reduction in inter-country inequality can inform discussions of the distribution of impacts of solar geoengineering, a topic of concern in geoengineering ethics and governance debates.

Guest Speaker

Kate Ricke
Assistant Professor
UC San Diego, School of Global Policy & Strategy,
and Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Kate Ricke is a climate change scientist who integrates tools from the physical and social sciences to analyze climate policy problems. Central to her work is accounting for uncertainty and heterogeneity—both in the effects of climate change and in preferences for how to address them. Ricke recently served as a research associate in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University and a fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science. Her current research includes topics ranging from the regional climate effects and international relations implications of solar geoengineering to decadal climate variability’s influence on international climate agreements. She has assessed uncertainty in phenomena, including ocean acidification’s effects on coral reefs and the warming effect from emission of CO2 today.

Co-sponsors