The Australian Forum for Climate Intervention Governance (AFCIG) aims to be the leading research centre for climate intervention governance in the Southern Hemisphere, producing high-quality, policy-relevant analysis to improve the national and international governance of solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal activities.
The University of Tasmania is strategically placed to play a leading role in the research and development of climate intervention governance in Australia in the Southern Hemisphere. The University has established strengths in the fields of environmental law, climate change law, marine governance, environmental humanities and marine and Antarctic science that feeds directly into climate intervention research. There is a group of researchers in the School of Law, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) who are actively engaged in climate intervention governance research and already informally comprise one of the leading groups of researchers on the topic nationally.
The formation of AFCIG will take this research agenda to the next level by providing an institutional focal point to lead national and international research on the legal and governance issues relating to Climate Intervention Proposals. This will position the University to consolidate its international profile in the field, access competitive external grant funding, and make an impact on national and international policy development.
Background to the Establishment of AFCIG Our People Follow us on X
Research Themes
Domestic Governance of Climate Intervention
- Capacity for domestic legal systems in Australia, United States, Europe etc to manage climate intervention research, field-testing and implementation
- Governance for mutually supportive outcomes and co-benefits
- Environmental/risk assessment procedures
- Managing cost/benefit trade-offs
Social Dimensions of Climate Intervention
- Public acceptance and risk perception
- Lessons from social uptake of earlier controversial technologies (e.g. GM crops, genetics)
- Ethics/justice
- Public communication, deliberative processes and aesthetics
International Governance of Climate Intervention
- Gaps in international governance frameworks
- Relationship between climate intervention, adaptation and loss and damage frameworks
- Liability and responsibility for climate intervention research and implementation
- Polar climate intervention
Security Dimensions of Climate Intervention
- Climate change, climate intervention and conflict
- Counter-geoengineering
- National security and human security
- Developing countries and human rights
Available Research Degree Projects
For a full list of current University projects, see the Research Division – Available Research Degree Projects.
Publications
There is already a core body of joint publications on the law and governance of SRM, CDR and geoengineering more broadly at the UTAS Law Faculty comprising of journal articles, including in leading international journals such as Nature: Climate Change and Climate Law.
Below is a list of climate intervention governance publications by proposed AFCIG members:
Journal Articles
- Kerryn Brent, Manon Simon & Jan McDonald, 'From informal to formal governance of solar radiation management' (2025) 25(6) Climate Policy 947-964.
- Jan McDonald & Manon Simon, ‘Ethics requirements for environmental research’ (2023) 30(2) Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 148-69
- Manon Simon, Jan McDonald & Kerryn Brent, ‘Transboundary Implications of China’s Weather Modification Program’ (2023) 12(3) Transnational Environmental Law 1-29
- Joshua Horton, Kerryn Brent, Zhen Dai, Tyler Felgenhauer, Oliver Geden, Jan McDonald, Jeffrey McGee, Felix Schenuit & Jianhua Xu 'Solar geoengineering research programs on national agendas: a comparative analysis of Germany, China, Australia, and the United States' (2023) 176(4) Climatic Change 37.
- Jeff McGee, Kerryn Brent, Jan McDonald & Clare Heyward, 'International Governance of Solar Radiation Management: Does the ENMOD Convention deserve a closer look?' (2020) 14(4) Carbon & Climate Law Review 294-305.
Book Chapters
- Manon Simon, Kerryn Brent, Jeff McGee & Jan McDonald, ‘Why Researching Solar Radiation Management Technologies Is Essential and Governable' in Reins & Zahar (eds.) Climate Technology and Law in the Anthropocene (BUP, 2025)
- Kerryn Brent, 'Solar Geoengineering and the Challenge of Governing Multiple Risks in the Anthropocene' in The Routledge Handbook of Law and the Anthropocene (Routledge, 2023) 257-267.
- Kerryn Brent, 'Solar geoengineering is prohibited under international law" in Debating climate law (Cambridge University Press, 2021) 274-284.
- Kerryn Brent, ‘Solar radiation management geoengineering: an opportunity to develop customary international law for ultra-hazardous activities?’ in Sara Seck, Neil Craik, Timothy Stevens and Cameron Jefferies (eds) International Law, Innovation and the Environment (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Books
- Manon Simon, Learning from Weather Modification Law for the Governance of Regional Solar Radiation Management (Springer, 2024).
Journal Articles
- Yuwan Malakar, Chad Baum, John Gardner, Kerryn Brent, Talia Jeanneret, Livia Fritz, Benjamin Sovacool, 'Beyond environmental identity: Testing public support for novel carbon dioxide removal in Australia using structural modelling' (2025) 394 Journal of Environmental Management 127633.
- Yuwan Malakar, Kerryn Brent, Talia Jeanneret & John Gardner, 'Stakeholders have knowledge priorities beyond local impacts for responsible marine-based carbon dioxide removal in Tasmania' (2025) 6(1) Communications Earth & Environment 813.
- Yuwan Malakar, Kerryn Brent, Talia Jeanneret, Audrey Bester, John Gardner & Andrew Lenton, 'Local capacity assessment is integral to stakeholder engagement for responsible marine carbon dioxide removal' (2025) 20(9) Environmental Research Letters 094036.
- Yuwan Malakar, Kerryn Brent, Audrey Bester, John Gardner, Will Howard & Andrew Lenton, 'Navigating stakeholder heterogeneity in carbon dioxide removal governance' (2025) 1(1) Nature Reviews Clean Technology 95-105.
- Miranda Boettcher & Kerryn Brent, 'The potential of the BBNJ clearing house mechanism to enhance knowledge pluralism in marine carbon dioxide removal assessment' (2024) 6 Frontiers in Climate 1497476.
- Jan McDonald, Kerryn Brent, Phillipa McCormack & Jeff McGee, 'Greenhouse gas removal in Australian climate law: A positive role for negative emissions' (2023) 46(1)The University of New South Wales Law Journal 79-110.
- David Keller, Kerryn Brent, Lennart Bach & Wilfried Rickels, 'The role of ocean-based negative emission technologies for climate mitigation' (2021) 3 Frontiers in Climate 743816.
- Miranda Boettcher, Kerryn Brent, Holly Jean Buck, Sean Low, Duncan McLaren & Nadine Mengis, 'Navigating potential hype and opportunity in governing marine carbon removal' (2021) 3 Frontiers in climate 664456.
- Narissa Bax, Chester J. Sands, Brendan Gogarty, Rachel V. Downey, Camille V. E. Moreau, Bernabé Moreno, Christoph Held, Maria L. Paulsen, Jeffrey McGee, Marcus Haward & David K. A. Barnes, 'Perspective: Increasing blue carbon around Antarctica is an ecosystem service of considerable societal and economic value worth protecting' (2021) 27(1) Global Change Biology 5-12.
- Brendan Gogarty, Jeff McGee, David Barnes et al. 'Protecting Antarctic blue carbon: as marine ice retreats can the law fill the gap?' (2020) 20(2) Climate Policy 149-162.
- Phillipa McCormack, Jan McDonald & Kerryn Brent, 'Governance of land-based negative-emission technologies to promote biodiversity conservation: lessons from Australia' (2020) 10(2) Climate Law 123-150.
- Kerryn Brent, Jan McDonald, Jeffrey McGee & Brendan Gogarty, ‘Carbon Dioxide Removal Geoengineering and Australian Law’ (2018) 92(10) Australian Law Journal 830-838
- Kerryn Brent, Jeffrey McGee, Jan McDonald & Eelco J Rohling, ‘International law poses problems for negative emissions research’ (2018) 8(6) Nature Climate Change 451.
- Phil W Boyd & M Bressac, ‘Developing a test-bed for robust research governance of geoengineering: the contribution of ocean iron biogeochemistry’ (2016) 374(2081) Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences Article 20150299
Book Chapters
- Kerryn Brent, 'Marine Geoengineering Governance and the Importance of Compatibility with the Law of the Sea' in Research Handbook on Climate Change, Oceans and Coasts (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020) 442-461.
- Reuben Makomere & Jan McDonald, 'Responding to ocean acidification beyond climate governance' in Research Handbook on Climate Change, Oceans and Coasts (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020) 330-347.
- Kerryn Brent, Jeffrey McGee & Jan McDonald, ‘Negative emissions and Geoengineering technologies: An Emerging Challenge for International and Domestic Legal Systems’ in Ana Alice de Carli, Elena Aydos and Pedro Curvello Saavedra Avzaradel (eds), O Estado Regulador no Cenario Ambiental (Editora Instituto Planeta Verde, 2017).
Policy Papers for Government
- Andrew R Bowie, Julia Jabour, Thomas W Trull, Karina McLachlan, Philip W Boyd, Tony Press, Delphine Lannuzel, Kerryn Brent, Jeffrey McGee, 'Policy Analysis: Ocean Fertilisation' (2016) Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre
Journal Articles
- Brent, Kerryn, Wil Burns & Jeffrey McGee. "Governance of marine geoengineering." (CIGI online, 2019).
- Jan McDonald, Jeff McGee, Kerryn Brent & Wil Burns, 'Governing geoengineering research for the Great Barrier Reef' (2019) 19(7) Climate Policy 801-811.
- B. Gogarty and McGee, J and Brent, K and McDonald, J and Haward, M and King, MA, “Glacier geoengineering needs lawyers too' (2018) Nature, 560 Article 167.
- Jeffrey McGee, Kerryn Brent & Wil Burns, 'Geoengineering the oceans: an emerging frontier in international climate change governance' (2018) 10(1) Australian Journal of Maritime and Ocean Affairs 67.
- Kerryn Brent, Jeffrey McGee & Jan McDonald, ‘The Governance of Geoengineering: An Emerging Challenge for International and Domestic Legal Systems?’ (2016) 24(1) Journal of Law, Information & Science, EAP 1.
- Phil W Boyd, ‘Development of geopolitically relevant ranking criteria for geoengineering methods’ (2016) 4(11) Earth’s Future 523.
- Kerryn Brent, Jeffrey McGee & Amy Maguire, ‘Does the ‘No-Harm Rule’ have a Role in Preventing Transboundary Harm and Harm to the Global Atmospheric Commons from Geoengineering?’ (2015) 5(1) Climate Law, 35.
- Hajar Benmazhar, Kerryn Brent, Haomiao Du, Viliamu Iese, Salif Kone, Nigel Moore, Cush Ngonzo Luwesi, Vivian Scott, Jordan Smith, Anita Talberg, Michael Thompson, Zhihong Zhuo, ‘Climate Engineering: Early Reflections on a Complex Conversation’ (2015) 5(2-4) Climate Law, 295.
- Kerryn Brent & Jeffrey McGee, ‘The regulation of geoengineering- A gathering storm for international climate change policy?’ (2012) 46(4) Air Quality and Climate Change, 22.
Our people
- Dr Kerryn Brent, CSIRO Research Scientist, Hobart, Australia
- Prof Jeff McGee, UTAS/IMAS, Hobart, Australia
- Prof Phil Boyd, IMAS, Hobart, Australia
- Dr Andrew Lenton, CSIRO Senior Research Scientist, Hobart, Australia
- Ms Aysha Fleming, CSIRO Research Scientist, Hobart, Australia
- Dr Wil Burns, Co-director of Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment, Washington DC, USA
- Dr Clare Heyward, University of Tromso, Norway
- Anita Talberg, Climate and Energy College, University of Melbourne, Australia
- Dr Bin Li, Newcastle Law School, Australia
Contact us
Postal address
University of Tasmania
School of Law
PO Box 844
SANDY BAY TAS 7006