From the largest solar geoengineering conference to date to 60 published research papers, 2025 saw Degrees’ community and influence grow.
In our first newsletter of 2025, we emphasised: “this will be a big year for global SRM issues, and we’ll be making sure that discussions are informed by Southern experts”. Here are seven quotes that capture how the year played out, including our major conference, expansion of research support and connecting experts with policymakers.
1. “The Degrees Global Forum was a crucial landmark in advancing global dialogue on SRM.”
Professor Ted Parson
UCLA Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment
The Degrees Global Forum, held in Cape Town 12—16 May, was the largest SRM conference to date, hosting 300 participants from 49 countries across research, policy and society.
Beyond the numbers, it was also a turning point for the global conversation on SRM. Catch up on all the Forum sessions on our YouTube channel.
2. “We engage with SRM in order to learn more and inform both scientists and policymakers.”
Roy Dorgeless Ngakala
Institut National de Recherche en Sciences Exactes et Naturelles (IRSEN), Republic of the Congo
We funded five new teams to conduct their country’s first SRM research projects this year, in Vietnam, Cabo Verde, Republic of the Congo, Morocco and Jordan.
In addition, 14 modelling teams that first received funding in 2023 had their grants renewed, so they can continue to build on their research: Brazil, Malaysia, Cameroon, Chile, India, Thailand, South Africa, Benin, Pakistan, Ghana, Jamaica, Nigeria, Mali and Uganda.
3. “The future of SRM in Africa must be decided through African leadership, scrutiny and governance.”
Dr Kwesi Akumenyi Quagraine, Prof. Babatunde J Abiodun and Prof. Samuel Essien-Baidoo
Degrees-funded researchers
Degrees-funded researchers made their voices heard this year. As well a powerful opinion in Nature Climate Change, African researchers pushed back against misrepresentations of solar geoengineering research on the continent, while Inés Camilloni from University of Buenos Aires was quoted in New Scientist about a survey of climate scientists on the likelihood of some solar geoengineering taking place by the end of the century.
4. “It’s a chance to help bridge the gap between scientific findings and real-world climate-related decisions.”
Dr Pornampai (Ping-Ping) Narenpitak
National Science and Technology Development Agency, Thailand
In August, the IPCC, the UN body responsible for assessing the science related to climate change, announced the contributors for its seventh Assessment Report (AR7). Among them were 14 researchers who have received Degrees funding. They come from varied climate and social science backgrounds, including in hydrology, atmospheric chemistry and anthropology, and have added SRM studies to their work as the topic gains more interest around the world.
5. “This is to ensure that developing countries are not passive recipients of climate solutions but active architects of its future.”
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Ghanaian Minister for Foreign Affairs
We received some high-level plaudits this year, none more so than from the Ghanaian Minister for Foreign Affairs at this year’s Paris Peace Forum, where he said: “Without inclusive governance, SRM risk becoming a tool of geopolitical imbalance rather than global solidarity … Yet, there is hope. Initiatives like the Degrees Initiative are empowering scientists from the Global South to participate in SRM research.”
6. “You’ve already got people in your country who are looking into this issue, and we can connect you with them.”
Anita Nzeh
Degrees Policy Engagement Manager
Having built the largest SRM research programme in the world, this year Degrees began connecting experts with policymakers in earnest. This involved workshops in Nairobi and Bogota, plus participation in events at New York Climate Week, with Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and with UNEP and the WMO.
Policy Director Marcos Regis da Silva said: “Degrees remains neutral on whether SRM should ever be used, so we’re not asking policymakers to adopt a certain position or support a particular policy, but to realise they have their own experts they can draw on to understand the topic.”
7. “Our goal was to empower researchers to ask their own questions, and it’s enormously gratifying to see them being answered.”
Andy Parker
Degrees Founder and CEO
In August, the 50th Degrees-funded paper was published—in fact, it was two papers: one by a socio-political team in Mexico and another by a modelling team in Benin, which jointly took the 50th spot. Since then, twelve more papers have come out, meaning half of all Degrees-funded papers were published in 2025.
