A new Comment in Nature Climate Change by Degrees-funded researchers from across Africa makes the case for the continent to play a leading role in global efforts to research and govern solar radiation modification (SRM), also known as solar geoengineering.
The piece, written by Kwesi Akumenyi Quagraine, Babatunde J Abiodun and Samuel Essien-Baidoo, emphasises that Africa must move from passive recipient to active leader in SRM research, governance and public engagement.
As SRM emerges as a topic in mainstream climate discussions, the authors note that this conversation is global in theory but not in practice. They warn that, despite capacity-building efforts from the Degrees Initiative and the new African Climate Intervention Research Hub, Africa remains underfunded, underrepresented and under-engaged, with think tanks, research centres and philanthropic backers in the Global North dominating modelling efforts, scenario planning and governance frameworks.
They write: “The future of SRM in Africa must be decided through African leadership, scrutiny and governance, ensuring any research or deployment respects African priorities and sovereignty.”
SRM poses potential benefits for Africa, including reduced climate-change impacts, as well as risk, such as changing monsoon patterns that underpin crop production. The authors note that the continent has often been a passive recipient of external climate ‘solutions’ with local consequences, and that to avoid this in the case of SRM, there needs to be a continent-wide, African-led initiative dedicated to understanding the outcomes, risks and governance of the technology.
The authors laud African negotiators’ previous successes in climate diplomacy, from loss-and-damage recognition to securing adaptation finance, and call for greater regional cooperation and leadership. They suggest that African governments and international bodies could help the continent “claim its place at the table” by:
- Forming positions on SRM governance
- Creating a regional SRM policy forum
- Setting global norms around SRM governance and research
Catalysing change
The Comment piece is part of the African SRM expert community’s efforts to inform a more inclusive global debate on SRM – one based on evidence rather than ideology. African researchers that began exploring the issue through Degrees funding have gone on to become IPCC authors, have led workshops highlighting governance challenges of SRM, and have affirmed their commitment in the media to leading SRM science for the continent, among other activities.
As the authors point out, moving Africa closer to the centre of the SRM conversation requires deliberate investment in capacity, creating the relevant expertise to make informed and equitable decisions about sunlight reflection.
They conclude that: “A technology that alters the sun cannot be governed responsibly if it excludes the region whose economies and livelihoods depend so deeply on the rhythms of rain. […] Africa cannot afford to watch from the sidelines; this is the time to take the field.”
About the authors
The Comment’s authors all came into the study of SRM through grants from the Degrees Modelling Fund.
Dr Kwesi Akumenyi Quagraine is Lecturer and climate research scientist at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He is a member of two Degrees-funded projects in Ghana that cover both the physical modelling of SRM and its socio-political implications
The Modelling Fund project he’s involved in investigates SRM’s impacts on West Africa’s Harmattan windy season, and how it affects rainfall in this important agricultural region, with initial results suggesting it could lead to less warming compared to worst-case climate change, but may also increase aridity in some regions.
Ghana’s Socio-Political Fund project also includes Prof. Samuel Essien-Baidoo, an Associate Professor in Laboratory Medicine and a Fellow of the West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science. The researchers study the governance, policy structures and social implications of SRM through the assessment of knowledge levels among stakeholders, analyses of governance frameworks and explorations of ethical and policy implications.
Prof. Babatunde Joseph Abiodun is a Lecturer and Coordinator of the Atmospheric Science Programme for the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He has helped lead two Modelling Fund projects, the first researching the potential impact of SRM on agricultural production in Southern Africa through an analysis of the drivers of extreme weather events, and the second researching how SRM might affect the future of rangeland and livestock production on the continent.
This piece was written by Hayley Dunning.
