Senior Consultant

MatthiasHonegger

Climate Change GovernanceCarbon Dioxide Removal Strategies, Roadmapping and PoliciesSolar Radiation Modification Governance
Portrait of Matthias Honegger
We face some big societal challenges including the scaling of carbon dioxide removals through fair and effective policies, carbon management strategies serving science-based, Paris-aligned mitigation.

Matthias Honegger leads a research group focussed on policy for our business area Carbon Dioxide Removal. He is also a governance expert on the emerging issue of Solar Radiation Modification. His research examines possible policy designs including explicitly their normative dimensions and broader implications for diverse social objectives. He leads a three-year project advising the European Commission on the governance of (experimental) SRM research (Co-CREATE). He also co-leads a multi-year research project that examines policy design options for carbon dioxide removal with stakeholder input (CDR-PoEt). Additionally, his work includes policy and carbon market-related inputs to projects piloting carbon management.

Matthias has pioneered the carbon dioxide removal policy field since 2012 and is making foundational contributions to the governance of Solar Radiation Modification.

Participating in climate negotiations since 2012, inter alia, Matthias provides advisory, including to COP presidencies. He holds an M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and was a guest at Harvard University, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the University of Oxford, Yale University, and the University of Heidelberg. His studies spanned system sciences, energy technologies, economics, atmospheric sciences, political science, and psychology to holistically address climate change.

The topic of carbon dioxide removals has long been held back by disagreement over its appropriate role in climate policy. Through our work we seek to untangle normative disagreement to point out constructive paths forward in which disagreement does not result in broadly undesirable gridlock, but rather is truly acknowledged so that common ground can be identified.
Areas of expertise
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Climate Change Governance

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Carbon Dioxide Removal Strategies, Roadmapping and Policies

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Solar Radiation Modification Governance

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Sustainable Development Goals

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Stakeholder-Involved Research and Advisory

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