Geoengineering
deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system.
Geoengineering (also known as climate engineering or climate intervention) is the deliberate large-scale interventions in the Earth’s climate system intended to counteract human-caused climate change. The term commonly encompasses two broad categories: large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation modification (SRM). CDR involves techniques to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and is generally considered a form of climate change mitigation. SRM aims to reduce global warming by reflecting a small portion of sunlight (solar radiation) away from Earth and back into space. Although historically grouped together, these approaches differ substantially in mechanisms, timelines, and risk profiles, and are now typically discussed separately. Some other large-scale engineering proposals—such as interventions to slow the melting of polar and alpine ice—are also sometimes classified as forms of geoengineering.
Some types of geoengineering present political, social and ethical issues. One common objection is that focusing on these technologies could undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Effective governance and international oversight are widely regarded as essential.
Major scientific organizations have examined the potential, risks, and governance needs of geoengineering, including the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Royal Society, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the World Climate Research Programme.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Geoengineering” as deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q921851. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Geoengineering” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.