How can we ensure that research, development, and deployment of geoengineering technologies are democratically accountable? Questions of trust, transparency, consent, safety, collaboration, and other value-driven issues are inescapable in the public sphere, even as researchers may question the competence and relevance of public input. To examine democratic accountability in the governance of solar geoengineering research, the Alfred P. Sloan foundation funded a pilot study to design, develop, organize, and analyze informed public deliberation among groups of representatively diverse publics in Boston and Phoenix. Key findings will be presented by the study team, followed by a facilitated panel discussion with geoengineering researchers, funders, and policy scholars focused on: (i) how informed but disinterested lay publics can provide useful input for the development of geoengineering research, funding, and governance structures; and (ii) how different governance mechanisms being contemplated should create opportunities for broader public and stakeholder engagements for efficacy and transparency.

• B - Biogeosciences
• GC - Global Environmental Change