Statement from Louise Bedsworth, PhD On Serving as Chair of the Advisory Committee for the SCoPEx Project
Sacramento, CA–I look forward to working with Harvard University and serving as Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx) project. I am undertaking this work because I know that climate change is the largest challenge of our time. We are already experiencing impacts that will continue to grow and affect future generations. I know that reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating robust, resilient natural systems, infrastructure, and communities must remain the top priorities to address this challenge and give us our best hope for the future.
Yet, I am also aware that as the effects of climate change worsen, solar geoengineering may be looked to as a tool to mitigate these effects. I believe responsible, accessible, and transparent research is needed to understand the technical, political, and societal implications of solar geoengineering and to support informed decisions around deployment if such decisions become necessary.
Harvard’s establishment of the Advisory Committee responds to the critical need to identify and recognize holistically the social and political implications of conducting the proposed research. The SCoPEx project seeks to answer important scientific questions about particle dynamics in the stratosphere that could help us better understand and quantify the potential risks and benefits of solar geoengineering. However, the Advisory Committee recognizes that this is more than a technical pursuit and commits to engaging the broader societal implications of this inquiry and ultimate results.
The Advisory Committee will develop and implement a framework to ensure that the SCoPEx project is conducted in a transparent, credible, and legitimate manner. This will include establishing expectations and means to hear from multiple perspectives, voices, and stakeholders. The Advisory Committee membership comprises a broad range of expertise, which we will augment by engaging with additional experts and stakeholders. My goal for our work is to provide a replicable model for conducting engaged and informed research on this critical and controversial issue.
Media Contact:
Sally Klimp, Executive Coordinator of the SCoPEx Advisory Committee
sklimp@g.harvard.edu