PNNL

Abstract

The urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been recognized, but the goal of limiting global temperature rise “well below 2 degrees” and possibly down to 1.5°C remains highly challenging, despite the large regional consequences. Slow progress in the reduction of CO2 emissions have led to the discussion of climate engineering schemes,, which remain controversial within the climate research communityIn particular, the reduction of global mean temperature via solar radiation management (SRMglob) could lead to strong regional disparities. Here we show, based on a literature review and climate model simulations, that regional land radiative management (LRMreg), a generally little-considered option in assessments of climate engineering could help reduce warming (and in particular hot extremes) in densely populated and major agricultural land regions. Several ethical issues would remain with the application of LRMreg, and its efficacy would also be limited in time and space related to crop growing periods and constraints on agricultural management. However, through its regional focus and reliance on tested techniques, LRMreg avoids main shortcomings associated with SRMglob. We argue therefore that albedo-related climate benefits of land management should be considered when assessing ecosystem services and integrated in scenarios of regional-scale climate adaptation and mitigation.