2024 marks an important year for African Science Leadership, with its coalition launching at the UN Civil Society Conference on May 9, 2024. Its work will be a focus for this year’s Science Summit, which will be held parallel to the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and coincide with the Summit of the Future (SotF). The SotF will gather leaders to review global challenges and start planning for the post-2030 era. Scientific evaluations will underpin this process.
Climate change remains high on the UNGA’s agenda and there is increasing interest in emerging technologies to address climate change impacts. One of those technologies is solar radiation modification (SRM), a proposal for reducing the impacts of global warming by reflecting some sunlight away from the Earth.
Earlier this year, at the Sixth United Nations Environment Assembly, a resolution on SRM was withdrawn. It sought to provide member states with more information on research, deployment capabilities, ethics, and potential impacts, including risks, benefits, and uncertainties.
The next few years will be crucial for SRM research and governance, and climate-vulnerable regions will need informed and confident representation if they are to effectively advocate for their interests.
The Degrees Initiative is an NGO that builds the capacity of developing countries to evaluate SRM. Working with a broad coalition of partners and volunteers, it has singularly transformed the field of SRM research, awarding over $2.5 million in grants to Southern research projects, supporting over 170 researchers across 37 projects in 22 developing countries and emerging economies. Beyond research, Degrees also supports Southern experts in informing processes that seek to strengthen governance for SRM.
The SRM researchers supported by Degrees are becoming leaders in the field. They publish their findings in prestigious journals, serve on UN panels and ensure that the Global South has its own SRM expertise and evidence. The power of an informed Southern voice was demonstrated last year when 18 African climate scientists who came into SRM research through the Degrees Modelling Fund wrote to the New York Times, emphasising the importance of Southern SRM research.
The science-policy interface is where the necessary ingredient, ‘trust’, is built to overcome barriers to progress. The SRM researchers supported by Degrees have built trust and are now recognised as credible voices by ensuring that their evaluations are regional and country context-specific, people-focused and overall sensitive to planetary needs.
As the world advances toward 2030, the world seeks means to reduce risks from one of the greatest challenges, climate change. The voices of scientists from climate vulnerable countries should be amplified amongst decision making processes, so that they are represented, and deliberations are evidence-based.
