Governing geoengineering research: why, when and how?

This paper considers the reasons why geoengineering research might be subject to additional governance and suggest mechanisms that might be usefully applied in developing such a framework. It considers criteria for governance as raised by a review of the growing literature on geoengineering and other controversial scientific topics. The paper suggests three families of concern that any governance research framework must respond to: the direct physical risks of the research; the transparency and responsibility in decision making for the research; and the larger societal meanings of the research. Finally, it reviews what mechanisms might be available to respond to these three families of concern, and considers how these might apply to geoengineering research.