Moderator:
Dan WicklumCEO
Speakers:
David KeithProfessor and Founding Faculty Director, Climate Systems Engineering Initiative, University of Chicago
- 12:00 - 1:00 pm ET
Can We Afford to Ignore Solar Geoengineering?
Webinar Summary
Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) is part of a growing suite of geoengineering technologies designed to reflect sunlight back into space in order to lessen the impacts of climate change. While geoengineering is not a substitute for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, it could complement wider efforts to mitigate the effects of global warming beyond 1.5°C.
For Canada, proactively investing in research around SRM may carry strategic weight, for its potential to address climate risks as well as its implications for our Arctic sovereignty and energy security. Advances in the technology mean Canada may soon have to decide whether to invest in the research and expertise that will be needed to shape the global rules of SRM development. Without acting now, some experts warn that Canada risks being sidelined in future global decisions, harming our ability to protect our energy security and the precarious ecosystem of a warming Arctic.
SRM technologies remain in early development and have faced significant public skepticism. Some projects have already been shut down due to public opposition. Others have built enough trust to proceed to experimental stages, making potential deployment more feasible in the future.
Join us for an important discussion on these and other critical questions facing Canada’s approach to solar geoengineering.
Should Canada act now to build its SRM research capacity and leadership? How can we foster the local expertise and international partnerships we’ll need to control the technology should solar geoengineering become a reality?
Moderator
Dan Wicklum, PhD
CEO
Dr. Dan Wicklum has spent more than 25 years performing and managing research, driving innovation, and fostering collaboration between industry, government, academia, and civil society. He is the CEO of the Transition Accelerator, a pan-Canadian charity that works with groups across the country to solve business and social challenges while building in net zero emission solutions. Dan was also the inaugural co-chair of Canada’s Net-Zero Advisory Body (NZAB), the statutory independent body that advises the federal government on setting interim emission reduction targets on the way to a net-zero emission Canada by 2050 and on the most likely pathways to net zero.
Prior to joining the Transition Accelerator, Dan was the CEO of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, Executive Director of the Canadian Forest Innovation Council, and a senior manager at Environment and Climate Change Canada and at Natural Resources Canada. He was a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Montana, and holds a PhD in Aquatic Ecology from the University of Montana. His initial career was in professional football, as a linebacker for the Calgary Stampeders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Speakers
David Keith
Professor and Founding Faculty Director, Climate Systems Engineering Initiative, University of Chicago
David Keith has worked on energy and climate since 1990, when he switched out of physics. Now, he’s a prof at the University of Chicago, and, in a detour from academia, he founded Carbon Engineering, a cleantech startup.
