Paper short abstract:

I examine the two main imagined geoengineering technologies - the negative emissions technology (NET) BECCS, and solar geoengineering with stratospheric aerosols. I look at how the discourses surrounding each technology engages, albeit very differently, with development and justice concerns.

Paper long abstract:

The Paris climate agreement arguably marks the beginnings of a geoengineering turn in global climate policy. I explore this turn for its implications for the global South and from a climate justice perspective. I examine the two main imagined geoengineering technologies - the negative emissions technology (NET) bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), and solar geoengineering with stratospheric aerosols - the former critical to the Paris agreement and modelled climate futures, and the latter not officially embraced. I look at how the discourses surrounding each technology engages, albeit very differently, with development and justice concerns. I conclude that the approach to both technologies reflects a view of how the world ought to be ordered, one which emanates from the global North but is expected to be applied in the global South.