IMPLICC - Implications and risks of engineering solar radiation to limit climate change

IMPLICC addresses the call ”Implications and Risks of Novel Options to Limit Climate Change“ within the activity "Climate Change, Pollution and Risks” of the European Union's framework-7 programme (FP7) for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007-2013). The project is running since July 2009 under the cooperation of 5 higher educational and research institutions in France, Germany and Norway. The overall activities of the project are coordinated by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. 

The IMPLICC consortium is organizing an international symposium on implications of climate engineering via aerosol injections from 14 to 16 May in Mainz, Germany. More information on focus and goals of the symposium, registration, accomodation, etc. can be found here. The agenda is provided here.

Project summary

The overall goal of this project is to significantly increase the level of knowledge about the feasibility and implications of novel options (or “geoengineering concepts”), proposed recently to limit climate change.  Among these possibilities, a deliberate manipulation of the radiative budget of the Earth may allow a counterbalancing of the effects of continued greenhouse gas emissions on global temperature, but may also result in undesirable side effects for crucial parts of the Earth system and humankind. Three complex climate models will be used to quantify the effectiveness and side effects of such geoengineering concepts aiming at a reduction of the incoming solar radiation. Simulations of a climate modified through geoengineering will be performed based on IPCC type future emission scenarios. Economic modelling will be used to link benefits and side effects of the studied geoengineering concepts. The results of the study will be discussed with the scientific community, policy- and law-related communities and interested non-governmental organizations.

A Statement on geoengineering, its potential uses, costs and side effects can be found here.