Abstract: To help reduce global temperatures this century, the world will need to deploy some combination of solar geoengineering and carbon removal. I will introduce the technologies, taking stratospheric aerosols and ocean alkalinity as examples, and will sketch some of the prominent risks and uncertainties. I will provide examples of the research frontier and explore how a system’s engineering approach could inform research program design.

Biography: David Keith has worked near the interface between climate science, energy technology, and public policy since 1991. Best known for his work on the science, technology, and public policy of solar geoengineering, Keith led the development of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program. He took first prize in Canada’s national physics prize exam, won MIT’s prize for excellence in experimental physics, and was one of TIME Magazine’s Heroes of the Environment. He is founder of Carbon Engineering, a Canadian company developing technology to capture CO2 from ambient air.