In fall 2024, Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Reimagining Leadership, Sikina Jinnah co-authored “Early Engagement Will Be Necessary for Atmospheric Methane Removal Field Trials” Environmental Research Letters” with Stanford Ph.D. student Celina Scott-Buechler for Environmental Research Letters. This paper draws lessons from Jinnah’s work on the governance of solar geoengineering, another highly controversial climate intervention technology, to argue for the critical importance of early public engagement around outdoor field trials for atmospheric methane removal.
Alongside Jinnah’s Ph.D. student, Zach Dove (Politics) and Environmental Studies undergraduate alumnus and former Building Belonging fellow, Arien Hernandez, Jinnah published “Global Perceptions of Solar Geoengineering: A Review and Gap Analysis” in Energy Research and Social Science. This study includes a meta-analysis of the literature on public perspectives on solar geoengineering. It quantifies and illuminates deep injustices in solar geoengineering research in terms of who is doing it and whose perspectives are being studied.
For the past two years, Jinnah served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) committee, which was charged with developing a research agenda for the development of atmospheric methane removal technologies. In October 2024, the committee published its findings in a report. Jinnah also served on the briefing team for the report, which included briefings for federal agencies, the public, and congressional staff.