Partnerships
Partnerships and collaborative efforts allow us to amplify the collective impact toward responsible and equitable solar geoengineering discourse and decision-making. By fostering alliances with diverse stakeholders, including academics, scientists, policymakers, and civil society groups, DSG ensures comprehensive expertise while also cultivating legitimacy and inclusivity in its deliberative processes. Partnerships enrich the dialogue by incorporating varied perspectives, enhancing the quality of deliberation, and fostering trust among stakeholders on the ground. Through collaboration, DSG can navigate the complexities of solar geoengineering governance, promote transparency, and advance the pursuit of ethical, informed, and socially just decisions regarding solar geoengineering.
Organizations
The African Climate Foundation (ACF) is a re-granting organization that seeks to unlock and support development opportunities for climate action in Africa, through continental, regional and country-specific interventions and activities. The foundation accomplishes this through a combination of grant making, fellowships, transformational research, technical assistance, coalition building and targeted advocacy, and multi-stakeholder convenings.
COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) is a public university of Pakistan covering undergraduate and graduate programs in a variety of disciplines through seven campuses spread across the country, serving over 36,000 students. The Centre for Climate Research and Development and the Department of Meteorology are the focal points for the university’s engagement with DSG.
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is an independent, multi-dimensional organization, with expertise in research, policy, consultancy and implementation, and serves as an agent of change in energy, environment, climate change and sustainability spheres. With campuses focusing on research-based solutions across India, TERI is well-positioned to provide technology products, technical services, policy advisory and outreach on a variety of core issues for developing countries.
The Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) is an independent, non-profit research center devoted to the study of the regions around Pakistan: South Asia, Southwest Asia, China, and Central Asia, as well as the Indian Ocean region. It contributes towards improved governance in Pakistan through enhanced effectiveness and efficiency of government and non-government organizations.
Operaatio Arktis is a Finnish science outreach project aiming to preserve Arctic sea ice and prevent Arctic tipping points by updating society’s climate strategy to reflect the current situation. To safeguard the critical local and global role of the Arctic, Operaatio Arktis promotes equitable climate intervention research.
Individuals
Dr. Athar Hussain is a Professor in the Department of Meteorology, COMSATS University Islamabad. He also serves as the COMSATS Science Ambassador since 2015. He served as Chairman Department of Meteorology during 2015-2021 and as the Head for the Centre for Climate Research and Development during 2018-2023. His current research interests include climate change and its attribution, alongside changes to the climate under SG scenarios in GeoMIP. He is/has been the Principal Investigator on four projects related to SG, on public perceptions in developing countries for Resources for the Future, for a Harvard GEM Incubation Fund project on dashboard development on SG and malaria transmission in South Asia, for the Degrees Modeling Fund and the Degrees SocioPolitical Fund – on climate change, SG and health in Pakistan.
Prof. Dr. Hussain has been collaborating with DSG on his Harvard GEM Incubation Fund project, and co-organized a 2-day international conference and workshop in Islamabad in January 2024 to build awareness of SG science, technologies and governance challenges among key stakeholders in Pakistan, including academia, civil society, journalists, and health sector policy practitioners.
Dr. Sikina Jinnah is a Professor of Environmental Studies and affiliated graduate faculty of Politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She edits the journal Environmental Politics and co-chairs Harvard University’s Advisory Committee for the SCoPEx. Her research focuses on global environmental governance, in particular in the areas of climate change, climate engineering, and the nexus between international trade and environmental politics. She is the author or editor of 6 books, including Post-treaty Politics (MIT Press 2014), which received the 2016 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award for best book in international environmental affairs from the International Studies Association and her most recent monograph Greening through Trade (MIT Press 2020) was a finalist for the 2021 Canadian Political Science Association Prize in International Relations. She is a 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellow and holds a PhD from UC Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy and Management. Dr. Jinnah is collaborating with DSG to develop learning materials and focused social science research.
Dr. Imran Saqib Khalid is a climate and sustainability thought leader with over 20 years of wide ranging experience in the academic, non-profit, governmental and private sectors. Imran’s work focuses on regions and communities most vulnerable to environmental degradation and climate change. In this capacity he has been associated with the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Great Lakes Research Consortium and the Planning Commission of Pakistan. Earlier this year, Imran co-authored a policy brief (available at DSG website) to outline the governance challenges associated with SRM and provide an initial framework for Pakistani climate community members, civil society organizations, and policy and decision-makers to participate in the global discussions already underway on SRM. Currently, Imran is engaged with DSG in developing a white paper that aims to understand the potential of water governance institutions and frameworks in South Asia to come to terms with the climate crisis and discussion around SRM, by focusing on transboundary water treaties. Imran is a Fulbright scholar who holds a PhD in Environmental and Natural Resources Policy from SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, NY.
Julia Reindl is a senior foresight strategist and futures researcher, holding a master’s degree in Futures Studies from the Freie Universität Berlin, with additional background in anthropology and collaborative design. Julia’s focus lies in understanding the public perception of emerging environmental issues and technologies, as well as facilitating public deliberation on these topics.
She currently holds an NGFP research fellowship with a focus on SRM public engagement, employing innovative future methodologies. Julia has also served as an expert in foresight processes at the European Commission.
In collaboration with DSG, Julia conducts the workshops as part of the Arctic Youth Futures for Solar Geoengineering project, which aims to explore and analyze Arctic youth’s attitudes and perceptions toward SRM. The project also seeks to facilitate the co-creation of Arctic youth’s own SRM futures.
Dr. Kate Ricke is an Associate Professor and the Edward A. Frieman Endowed Presidential Chair in Climate Sustainability at University of California San Diego. She is an interdisciplinary climate scientist who combines methods from the physical climate sciences, including Earth System Modeling and analysis of environmental observations, with methods from decision theory and risk analysis. Her work focuses on a range of climate policy topics, including climate geoengineering and international human migration pressures of climate change. Dr. Ricke is collaborating with DSG and TERI to assemble a workshop in India on scenario development in late 2023.