Presenter(s):
Delphine Farmer, Colorado State University
Mahmud Farooque, Arizona State University
Jessica Haskins, University of Utah
Romany Webb, Columbia University
Mingyi Wang, University of Chicago
Laurence Yeung, Independent

Primary Convener:
Katrine Gorham, Spark Climate Solutions

Methane emissions have contributed roughly 0.5 °C to global warming relative to preindustrial times. Lasting roughly a decade in the atmosphere, methane has a global warming potential 83 times that of carbon dioxide over 20 years and 30 times that of carbon dioxide over 100 years. The methane growth rate has accelerated since 2006 with natural methane emissions rising due to climate change. Methane presents a major unaddressed risk to the climate system. Atmospheric oxidation enhancement (AOE) is a hypothesized open-system climate intervention, intended to accelerate methane breakdown in the open atmosphere. This idea has received growing attention from the scientific community, and emerging research explores whether this proposed intervention may be able to lower peak temperatures and counteract impacts from hard-to-abate and increasing natural methane emissions. It is a complex topic with many scientific, social, legal, and governance dimensions that are not well understood, with moral and ethical considerations specific to open-system interventions and geoengineering. We invite you to join an inclusive dialogue to better understand the research community’s perspective on priorities, knowledge gaps, and other considerations.

Cross-Listed:
SY - Science and Society
A - Atmospheric Sciences
OS - Ocean Sciences
GC - Global Environmental Change