Why oppose solar geoengineering? Mapping and comparing underlying rationales across actor groups

Why do actors oppose the development and potential future use of solar geoengineering technologies? This article maps and analyzes growing opposition to the development of planetary-scale solar geoengineering technologies among three actor groups—governments, civil society and academics. While much social science research on such technologies has addressed questions of feasibility, acceptance, legality, the desirability of more research or hypothetical governance designs, hardly any empirical analyses exist of the opposition to these technologies. Drawing on numerous policy documents, civil society declarations and academic statements, this article identifies eight diverse rationales that underpin current opposition from governments, intergovernmental bodies, civil society and academic communities to solar geoenegineering. These rationales include concerns about risks and uncertainties of potential solar geoengineering schemes, their failure to address the root causes of climate change, risks of delaying mitigation, likely violations of international law, entrenchment of unjust power relations, presumed ungovernability, technological hubris, and the violation of the Earth’s integrity. Our analysis also finds evidence of cross-fertilization among these rationales and a gradual normalization of a global ‘non-use’ discourse. Overall, these critical perspectives increasingly shape the normative and political terrain within which solar geoengineering is being deliberated.