Articles | Volume 17, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-387-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-387-2026
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
22 Apr 2026
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 22 Apr 2026

Stratospheric aerosol injection geoengineering has the potential to increase land carbon storage and to protect the Amazon rainforest

Isobel M. Parry, Paul D. L. Ritchie, Olivier Boucher, Peter M. Cox, James M. Haywood, Ulrike Niemeier, Roland Séférian, Simone Tilmes, and Daniele Visioni

Related authors

Canopy Structure Amplifies the Role of Radiation in Vegetation Responses Under Stratospheric Aerosol Injection
Brendan Clark and Daniele Visioni
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-6174,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-6174, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Earth System Dynamics (ESD).
Short summary
Ideas for Creating Early Warning Systems in the Climate Sciences
Chris Huntingford, Jesse F. Abrams, Peter Ashwin, Niklas Boers, Chris A. Boulton, Joshua E. Buxton, Joseph Clarke, Peter M. Cox, Andrew M. Cunliffe, Henk A. Dijkstra, Bahar Emirzade, Darren Ghent, Daniel Giles, Sneha Kachhara, Timothy M. Lenton, Valerio Lucarini, Helen Millman, Robert J. Parker, Sergei Petrovskii, Paul D. L. Ritchie, Cristina Ruiz Villena, Mark S. Williamson, and Niccolò Zagli
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5606,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5606, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Earth System Dynamics (ESD).
Short summary
A Comparison of Regional Climate Changes Under Idealized Zero-Emissions and Exceedance-and-Return Experiments
Charles Koven, Benjamin M. Sanderson, Abigail L. S. Swann, Victor Brovkin, John Dunne, Rosie A. Fisher, Tomohiro Hajima, Chris D. Jones, Spencer K. Liddicoat, Anastasia Romanou, Roland Séférian, Norman J. Steinert, Jerry Tjiputra, Tilo Ziehn, Tatiana Ilyina, Nancy Y. Kiang, David M. Lawrence, Peter Lawrence, Hongmei Li, Jorg Schwinger, and Lori T. Sentman
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5381,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5381, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Earth System Dynamics (ESD).
Short summary
The enhanced capabilities of mid-infrared limb emission sounding to observe stratospheric aerosol injection geoengineering
Pasquale Sellitto, Mona Kosary, Michael Höpfner, Bernd Funke, Alex Hoffmann, Jörn Ungermann, Quentin Errera, Simone Tilmes, and Björn-Martin Sinnhuber
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 6379–6393, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-6379-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-6379-2026, 2026
Short summary
Observation-based constraint suggests larger ocean carbon uptake and stronger climate feedbacks
Jens Terhaar, Laurent Bopp, Pierre Friedlingstein, Thomas Frölicher, Helene Hollitzer, Tatiana Ilyina, Lester Kwiatkowski, Paul Lerner, Hongmei Li, Anastasia Romanou, Jörg Schwinger, Roland Séférian, and Aaron Wienkers
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5757,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5757, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Biogeosciences (BG).
Short summary

Cited articles

Abiodun, B. J., Odoulami, R. C., Sawadogo, W., Oloniyo, O. A., Abatan, A. A., New, M., Lennard, C., Izidine, P., Egbebiyi, T. S., and MacMartin, D. G.: Potential impacts of stratospheric aerosol injection on drought risk managements over major river basins in Africa, Climatic Change, 169, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03268-w, 2021. a, b
Albertson, K., Aylen, J., Cavan, G., and McMorrow, J.: Forecasting the outbreak of moorland wildfires in the English Peak District, J. Environ. Manage., 90, 2642–2651, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.02.011, 2009. a
Armstrong McKay, D. I., Staal, A., Abrams, J. F., Winkelmann, R., Sakschewski, B., Loriani, S., Fetzer, I., Cornell, S. E., Rockström, J., and Lenton, T. M.: Exceeding 1.5 °C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points, Science, 377, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn7950, 2022. a, b
Arora, V. K., Katavouta, A., Williams, R. G., Jones, C. D., Brovkin, V., Friedlingstein, P., Schwinger, J., Bopp, L., Boucher, O., Cadule, P., Chamberlain, M. A., Christian, J. R., Delire, C., Fisher, R. A., Hajima, T., Ilyina, T., Joetzjer, E., Kawamiya, M., Koven, C. D., Krasting, J. P., Law, R. M., Lawrence, D. M., Lenton, A., Lindsay, K., Pongratz, J., Raddatz, T., Séférian, R., Tachiiri, K., Tjiputra, J. F., Wiltshire, A., Wu, T., and Ziehn, T.: Carbon–concentration and carbon–climate feedbacks in CMIP6 models and their comparison to CMIP5 models, Biogeosciences, 17, 4173–4222, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-4173-2020, 2020. a, b, c, d, e
Ballantyne, A., Smith, W., Anderegg, W., Kauppi, P., Sarmiento, J., Tans, P., Shevliakova, E., Pan, Y., Poulter, B., Anav, A., Friedlingstein, P., Houghton, R., and Running, S.: Accelerating net terrestrial carbon uptake during the warming hiatus due to reduced respiration, Nat. Clim. Change, 7, 148–152, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3204, 2017. a, b
Download
Editorial statement
This paper deals with the effects of solar geoengineering that aims to mitigate climate change by the injection of aerosols in the stratosphere. It uses climate model simulations to show that there could be an additional benefit in doing so as the models indicate an enhanced productivity of the biosphere, and thus a greater carbon sink. This is a significant insight that could stimulate more debate and analyses with regard to the pros and cons of geoengineering.
Short summary
Contrary to some expectations, results from the latest Earth System Models suggest that Solar Radiation Geoengineering could protect the Amazon rainforest from climate-driven dieback. Under Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, carbon storage in Amazonia was projected to increase by a mean of 10.8 % relative to a high CO2 emissions scenario, and even by 8.6% compared to a more conventional medium CO2 emissions scenario.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint