From the Gulf of Guinea to the Global Stage: Africa’s Voice in the Age of Climate Intervention

Abstract

Climate intervention technologies, Solar Radiation Management (SRM) and marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR), are moving from theoretical proposal to serious policy consideration, yet the scientific communities and governance frameworks shaping these decisions remain concentrated in the Global North, while the populations most exposed to unmitigated climate change and poorly understood interventions are largely in the Global South. This Perspective reflects on more than two decades of research in physical oceanography, coastal risk modeling, and climate science conducted from Benin, West Africa: a doctoral journey to Brazil, the construction of West Africa’s first video‐based coastal monitoring system at Grand Popo beach, an encounter in 2019 with the absence of African voices at a Harvard geoengineering residency, and the 2023 creation of the ICEBERG project. It argues that including African researchers in geoengineering science is a scientific and ethical imperative, not merely a matter of equity. Results from ICEBERG show that Stratospheric Aerosol Injection could cut global sea level rise by roughly 49%, with regional variability current models may underestimate. The Perspective closes with lessons for the next generation of Earth and space scientists in under‐resourced regions.