Actors, legitimacy, and governance challenges facing negative emissions and solar geoengineering technologies

Benjamin K. Sovacool, Chad M. Baum, Roberto Cantoni, Sean Low

Research output: Indexed journal article Articlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Institutional theory, behavioral science, sociology and even political science all emphasize the importance of actors in achieving social change. Despite this salience, the actors involved in researching, promoting, or deploying negative emissions and solar geoengineering technologies remain underexplored within the literature. In this study, based on a rigorous sample of semi-structured expert interviews (N = 125), we empirically explore the types of actors and groups associated with both negative emissions and solar geoengineering research and deployment. We investigate emergent knowledge networks and patterns of involvement across space and scale. We examine actors in terms of their support of, opposition to, or ambiguity regarding both types of climate interventions. We reveal incipient and perhaps unforeseen collections of actors; determine which sorts of actors are associated with different technology pathways to comprehend the locations of actor groups and potential patterns of elitism; and assess relative degrees of social acceptance, legitimacy, and governance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)340-365
Number of pages26
JournalEnvironmental Politics
Volume33
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2024
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Carbon dioxide removal
  • climate justice
  • greenhouse gas removal
  • solar radiation management

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