Engineering Earth’s Environment: The Political, Security, and Feasibility Implications of Geoengineering

Geoengineering (e.g. reflecting sunlight, removing carbon or carbon capture, spraying aerosols, cloud thinning, etc.) is no longer confined to academic speculation. As climate impacts outstrip political will and adaptation capacity, proposals to deliberately alter Earth systems are entering serious policy conversations, with industry and government investments.
The panel will explore geoengineering through the lens of industry, governance, and responsibility, drawing on research at the intersection of climate science and international politics. Our panelists include:
-Luke Iseman, CEO of Make Sunsets – the first company to deploy solar geoengineering
-Danielle Young, part of the Aria project to conduct strategic foresight and scenario analysis on geoengineering
-Janos Pasztor, former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change who published an independent report on Stardust – a company developing sunlight reflection technology
-Alistair Duffey, senior scientist at Reflective – a non-profit research organization on sunlight reflection research

Luke Iseman is CEO of Make Sunsets, the first company to deploy solar geoengineering. 1,200 individuals have paid Make Sunsets to deploy over 220kg of SO2 to the stratosphere. Previously, Luke founded other startups and was Director of Hardware at Y Combinator.

Danielle Young received her Mlitt in International Security Studies from the University of St Andrews in 2010, an MScEcon in International Relations from Aberystwyth University in 2012, and she completed her PhD in International Politics at Aberystwyth University in 2018. She was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of the Ozarks in the US from 2018-2022, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow examining potential political parallels between emerging solar geoengineering technologies and nuclear weapons at the University of Leeds from 2022-2024 and was a Lecturer in International Security at Aberystwyth University before to returning to Leeds. She also worked in the US government prior to her PhD.
Her current research focuses on the geopolitical and security implications of emerging climate engineering technologies. She is currently working on an Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) project to develop better strategic foresight about the potential geopolitical challenges to solar radiation modification governance, and a part of a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded project to develop a more holistic understanding of the risks of stratospheric aerosol injection.

Janos Pasztor has close to 5 decades of work experience in international organizations working on energy, environment, climate change and sustainable development. Retired on 31 December 2023, he is currently undertaking occasional projects related to climate change, without being affiliated to any particular institution.
During 2016-2023 he was Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and the Executive Director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G). During 2015-2016 he was UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change in New York and Senior Advisor to UN Secretary-General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon. Earlier, he was Acting Executive Director for Conservation (2014) and Policy and Science Director (2012-2014) at WWF-International. He directed the UNSG’s Climate Change Support Team (2008-2010) and later was Executive Secretary of the UNSG’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (2010-2012).

Alistair Duffey is a Senior Scientist at Reflective and a visiting researcher at University College London, with a background in the climate modelling of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), a form of solar geoengineering. At Reflective, Alistair’s work focuses on the scientific roadmap for SAI research, including research prioritisation, uncertainty mapping, and grantmaking.