Perspective
What Do the Announcements From the New US Administration Mean for SRM?
Experts react to the climate policy announcements from the new administration in the United States (US) and consider how they could affect the debate on sunlight reflection methods (SRM), also known as solar geoengineering.
On 20 January 2025, the new US administration announced that the US would withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, and “cease or revoke any purported financial commitment made by the United States under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”.
It also declared a “national energy emergency”, and that it would “unleash American energy” by encouraging the increased US production of fossil fuels.
We asked three US climate experts how the change of administration and its new policies might affect the debate around the research and development of SRM as a potential means to tackle climate change.
Jane Long
Principal Associate Director at Large, retired
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Jane Long is an energy and climate scientist. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and senior fellow at the California Council on Science and Technology.
Jane Long
Principal Associate Director at Large, retired
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Jane Long is an energy and climate scientist. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and senior fellow at the California Council on Science and Technology.
Jane Long
Principal Associate Director at Large, retired
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Jane Long is an energy and climate scientist. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and senior fellow at the California Council on Science and Technology.
SRM might – or might not – prove to be a critical tool in managing our changing climate. Although research might provide more confidence in the utility or inadvisability of a potential SRM deployment, controversies surrounding this research stem from the lack of a clear path to manage SRM appropriately and fairly and fear that policy makers will try to use SRM instead of eliminating emissions. SRM cannot substitute for eliminating emissions. If we keep emitting and try to deploy SRM in order to lower temperatures, it would require stronger and stronger interventions, which would create more and more novel and riskier climate states – if they were feasible at all.
Taking the US out of the Paris Agreement and promoting policies that increase our dependence on fossil fuels signal both a lack of commitment to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions and an inability to responsibly manage climate change. As a consequence, these actions increase the controversies surrounding SRM research. A government that abandons its commitment to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions certainly cannot be trusted with the research of SRM.
David Keith
Professor of Geophysical Science and founding Faculty Director at the Climate Systems Engineering Initiative
University of Chicago
David Keith has worked at the interface of climate science, energy technology, and public policy since 1990. He is a Professor of Geophysical Science and founding faculty director of the Climate Systems Engineering initiative at the University of Chicago. He has authored more than 200 academic publications and the book ‘A Case for Climate Engineering’.
David Keith
Professor of Geophysical Science and founding Faculty Director at the Climate Systems Engineering Initiative
University of Chicago
David Keith has worked at the interface of climate science, energy technology, and public policy since 1990. He is a Professor of Geophysical Science and founding faculty director of the Climate Systems Engineering initiative at the University of Chicago. He has authored more than 200 academic publications and the book ‘A Case for Climate Engineering’.
David Keith
Professor of Geophysical Science and founding Faculty Director at the Climate Systems Engineering Initiative
University of Chicago
David Keith has worked at the interface of climate science, energy technology, and public policy since 1990. He is a Professor of Geophysical Science and founding faculty director of the Climate Systems Engineering initiative at the University of Chicago. He has authored more than 200 academic publications and the book ‘A Case for Climate Engineering’.
Trump brings worries right up to the chance that an impulsive president blunders into nuclear war. So, I am not panicked about Trump’s climate impact. It’s true that Trump’s energy and climate announcements are foolish and deliberately provocative, but it’s unlikely they will have a big impact. Global CO2 emissions are set to peak within the next few years. The US is important, but it’s only about 14% of global CO2 emissions. A presidential term is just four years, and climate is driven by cumulative emissions over decades. And finally, Trump’s executive orders can’t do much to change the trajectory of US energy investments.
I have no idea how his administration might address solar geoengineering. In one extreme you could imagine the administration trying to abolish NOAA and creating such a catfight that solar geoengineering gets lost in the shuffle. At another extreme you could imagine them pushing forward a significant research program. Whatever happens this is far down my list of concerns about a Trump presidency.
Jesse Reynolds
Chief of Staff
Degrees Initiative
Jesse Reynolds is an expert in international environmental policy and emerging technologies. He is currently Chief of Staff at the Degrees Initiative, an NGO dedicated to putting the Global South at the centre of the SRM conversation. He wrote the 2019 book ‘The Governance of Solar Geoengineering: Managing Climate Change in the Anthropocene’.
Jesse Reynolds
Chief of Staff
Degrees Initiative
Jesse Reynolds is an expert in international environmental policy and emerging technologies. He is currently Chief of Staff at the Degrees Initiative, an NGO dedicated to putting the Global South at the centre of the SRM conversation. He wrote the 2019 book ‘The Governance of Solar Geoengineering: Managing Climate Change in the Anthropocene’.
Jesse Reynolds
Chief of Staff
Degrees Initiative
Jesse Reynolds is an expert in international environmental policy and emerging technologies. He is currently Chief of Staff at the Degrees Initiative, an NGO dedicated to putting the Global South at the centre of the SRM conversation. He wrote the 2019 book ‘The Governance of Solar Geoengineering: Managing Climate Change in the Anthropocene’.
On his first day in office, US President Trump made a widely decried decision by ordering the country’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Coming on the heels of the first year in which global warming exceeded 1.5°C, this is troubling news. What this means for climate action is unclear; empirical evidence of policies’ causal effect on emissions is difficult to produce.
The actions the Trump administration might take regarding SRM are highly uncertain. Despite speculation that opponents of climate action, such as Trump, might advocate for SRM – or are already doing so – these individuals often dismiss it as an unnecessary response to what they view as a non-existent problem. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Trump supporter and cabinet nominee, goes so far as to say that geoengineering is “probably as dangerous to us as climate change itself”. However, the MAGA coalition also includes figures like Elon Musk, whose strong belief in technology as a solution to humanity’s challenges could drive increased interest in SRM research and development.
The views expressed by Perspective writers and contributors are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by SRM360. The goal of our Perspectives is to present ideas from diverse viewpoints, further supporting informed discussion of sunlight reflection methods.
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