Is geoengineering a security threat?

Geoengineering research is growing, as scientists look for increasingly radical means to protect humanity from the disastrous impacts of global heating.

Less publicly, concerns are also building about the use of these techniques for geopolitical disruption or control. 

Technologies such as solar radiation management (SRM) and stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) are controversial amongst climate scientists: they could buy us time through a temporary cooling effect, but they would not actually stop global heating, and could cause other negative impacts.

Danielle Young tells Alasdair that scientific research on these technologies often lacks alignment with political realities. While scientists plan for multilateral governance regimes to protect global populations from heat, government and military officials are more likely to think about SRM or SAI in terms of weaponisation and international power struggles. 

Dr Danielle Young is an Assistant Professor in Politics and International Studies at The University of Leeds. Her research focuses on the geopolitical and security implications of emerging solar geoengineering technologies. 

Further reading: 

• 'Why we need to explore conflict and competition around solar geoengineering', PLOS Climate, 2026
• 'Who could deploy stratospheric aerosol injection? The United States, China, and large‐scale, rapid planetary cooling', Global Policy, 2025 
• 'How will capitalism react to climate collapse?', Land and Climate Review, 2025
• 'Who Can Govern from a House on Fire? International Order, State
  Responsibility, and the Problem of Solar Radiation Modification', Ethics & International Affairs, 2024
• 'Scientific models versus power politics: How security expertise reframes solar geoengineering', Review of International Studies, 2024
• 'Considering stratospheric aerosol injections beyond an environmental frame: The intelligible ‘emergency’ techno-fix and preemptive security', European Journal of International Security, 2023
• 'Do-or-Die: Should we be talking about geoengineering?', Land and Climate Review, 2022
• 'The Geopolitical ecology of solar geoengineering: From a ‘logic of multilateralism’ to logics of militarization', Journal of Political Ecology, 2020
• Geoengineering, the Anthropocene and the End of Nature, Jeremy Baskin, 2019
• ‘The entwined Cold War roots of missile defense and climate geoengineering’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2019

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