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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 17 April (HL15077), why they do not have any plans to increase global cooperation and governance of research on, and the use of, solar radiation management technologies; and what assessment, if any, they have made of the risk of that lack of plans leading to unilateral deployment without international consent

The priority of the UK Government is to tackle the root cause of climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities and adapting to those impacts that are unavoidable. We are aware of independent existing efforts to increase cooperation and governance of research into solar radiation management technologies, such as the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative and the ‘Oxford Principles’ for the governance of geoengineering. We have not formally assessed the risk that lack of plans may lead to unilateral deployment without international consent.