The SRM Governance Initiative (SRMGI) is an international, non-governmental project based in the UK that is working to transform how the world approaches one of the biggest climate challenges. Its mission is to build the capacity of developing countries to evaluate solar radiation management geoengineering (SRM) and to play a major role in shaping the issue globally. SRM is a controversial proposal for reducing the impacts of climate change by reflecting some sunlight away from the Earth. It could be either very helpful or very harmful, and SRMGI’s aim is to transform the global environment in which it will be considered, by promoting the role of developing countries in reaching equitable and evidence-based decisions.
For the last decade, SRMGI (www.srmgi.org) has led the world in building developing country capacity to evaluate SRM. We work by partnering on SRM engagement workshops in developing countries, starting a conversation and making new contacts. We then fund SRM research in the Global South through our DECIMALS Fund (Developing Country Impact Modelling Analysis for SRM). DECIMALS is the world’s first international SRM research fund and the first aimed at scientists in the Global South, and through its grants we are supporting research team in Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Indonesia, Iran, Ivory Coast, Jamaica and South Africa. These activities are in services of a broader, more ambitious long-term goal: we seek to change the global environment in which SRM will be considered, making sure that developing countries play a central role in researching and discussing SRM, and ultimately deciding whether to implement or reject it.
