Description
A looming challenge for international order in the coming decades will be how to address anthropocentric climate change. As hopes fade that international efforts to reduce carbon emissions through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be sufficient, some scientists and policymakers have started to turn to emergent technologies such as solar geoengineering, particularly Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), as a possible solution to the growing climate crisis. However, these technologies present a number of environmental and geopolitical risks. Contrary to claims that it will be vulnerable nations lead the way on SRM or that it will be developed for their benefit, SAI can only be practically deployed and maintained by countries with large-scale industrial capacities such as the major military powers. As calls for the declaration of a ’climate emergency’ increase, the turn to an ‘emergency’ response may become politically appealing sooner rather than later even if there remain outstanding uncertainties about its risks and benefits. This paper explores SAI as a potential arena for the expansion of climate militarism in a race to claim control or dominance of the atmosphere in the context of increasing international tensions and instability.
