Geoengineering is the technofix to climate change – a complex, contentious and high-stakes proposal that, in the absence of credible long-term global emissions reduction, cannot be overlooked. Anita’s PhD project adopts a sustainability perspective within which scenarios are often used in the management of long-term, complex, and uncertain issues. It investigates how a scenario exercise can inform sustainable geoengineering governance in Australia.

This seminar provides an overview of the thesis and a detailed view of one chapter in which a meta-analysis of geoengineering scenarios is undertaken. The chapter finds that the treatment of geoengineering within existing scenario-based research does not align with sustainability concepts due to an emphasis on technological solutions, a focus on global effects and actions rather than local or regional issues, and portrayal of only a narrow range of perspectives.

Speaker

Anita Talberg completed her PhD research on geoengineering at the University of Melbourne in 2018 and is now the Science Coordinator for the Climate and Energy College’s bilateral Australia-wide research project, the Australian-German Energy Transition Hub. Previously, Anita worked for the Research Branch of the Parliamentary Library in Canberra, providing analysis and advice on climate and energy to Federal parliamentarians.