How to Reduce the Likelihood of Moral Corruption When Governing Geoengineering

In this paper, I explore the problem of moral corruption in the context of geoengineering governance. The type of geoengineering focused on is stratospheric sulphur aerosol injection (SSI). There are prima facie reasons to think that transparency may be our salvation when it comes to SSI governance, given that transparency is a highly regarded tool for engaging with other cases of corruption. Moreover, reports on geoengineering governance recommendations consistently talk about the power and importance of transparency. Despite the appeal of transparency, I show that transparency alone will not be effective in reducing the likelihood of moral corruption. The reason for this is that transparency alone is unlikely to induce behavioural change in SSI governance. Yet, transparency does have value for engaging with moral corruption. The value of transparency is that it enables accountability to function well, and accountability is a powerful tool for reducing the likelihood of moral corruption. This is because SSI governance regimes will be somewhat responsive to those who hold them to account. I then proceed to apply this argument by showing how accountability can function in the scientific research domain of SSI. By doing this it is clear we have reasons to think that accountability will decrease the likelihood of moral corruption in SSI research. Therefore, the paper shows how the likelihood of moral corruption can be reduced in SSI governance via well-functioning accountability mechanisms.