First SRMGI workshop in China
In October 2011 SRMGI (the Degrees Initiative) partnered with the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and the Geographical Society of China (GSC) to run a symposium on SRM research, governance and uncertainty in Tianjin. GSC was founded in Nanjing in 1934 and has more than 20,000 members. It promotes scientific research, publishes journals, trains geographers, and popularizes the study of geography around China. An umbrella organization for numerous academic and professional societies, CAST seeks to support China’s economic and social development and promote the nation’s scientific literacy.
The symposium was attended by over 100 participants, who were largely academics from the physical sciences, social sciences and engineering. Proceedings were opened by the symposium chair Prof Qin Dahe, academician of the Chinese Academician of Sciences, vice president of CAST and the president of the Chinese Meteorological Society. He set the scene for the meeting by reviewing the state of scientific evidence on climate change and projections for future impacts.
Over the two days of the symposium, presentations from a range of experts provided the foundation for group discussions on climate change and SRM. They included:
- Dai Yongjiu (Professor, Beijing Normal University, China): The Terrestrial Modeling System
- Guo Jun (Professor and Vice Director of Tianjin Climate Center, China): Climate Change and its effect on the environment
- Arunabha Ghosh (CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water, India): International Governance of Solar Geoengineering
- Liu Chuang (Professor, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, China)
- Piao Shilong (Professor, Peking University, China): Carbon Balance of Terrestrial Ecosystem in China
- Sir Crispin Tickell (Honorary Vice President, The Royal Geographical Society, UK): The Effects of Rising Sea Levels