Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to promote improved global cooperation and governance of research and use of greenhouse gas removal and solar radiation management technologies.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provides a mechanism for global cooperation to assess research into Greenhouse Gas Removal technologies (GGRs) and Solar Radiation Management (SRM). These technologies are included in the scope of the upcoming 6th Assessment Report, due for publication in 2021.

The UK is a leading member of a number of multi-lateral initiatives focused on accelerating progress, and improving global cooperation, of Carbon Capture, Use and Storage (CCUS) which is an important enabler of some GGRs. This includes the UK co-leading the Carbon Capture Challenge under Mission Innovation and the CCUS Initiative under the Clean Energy Ministerial. The UK also co-hosted, with the International Energy Agency, a Global CCUS Summit in Edinburgh last November bringing together senior energy leaders from governments and industry on how to accelerate global progress on CCUS.

As a leading provider of International Climate Finance, the UK supports developing countries to restore degraded forest landscapes to support local livelihoods and restore carbon stocks as part of their contributions under the Paris Agreement.

We have no plans to increase global cooperation and governance of research on and use of SRM technologies. A resolution on SRM governance was recently put before the UN Environment Assembly by Switzerland, but did not gather enough support from other countries, and the resolution was withdrawn.