1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Geoengineering Research Evaluation Act of 2017 . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Many significant scientific studies have concluded that the climate is changing. The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that even under the most stringent carbon constrained scenario, mean global surface temperature will still increase. (2) If unmitigated, continued rises in temperature will have severe impacts on human health, the global economy, and United States national security, damaging both earth and human systems. (3) Cutting carbon pollution is still the best way to mitigate climate change because it prevents further global temperature rise, whereas climate intervention is a higher risk reaction to already elevated greenhouse gas levels. (4) However, the United States and other nations may also need to consider climate intervention strategies, beginning with carbon dioxide removal and sequestration, including biological sequestration, and potentially extending to albedo modification. (5) In 2015, the National Academies published two reports that outline the research needs and ethical questions for climate intervention, addressing carbon dioxide removal and sequestration and albedo modification. These reports found that currently there is insufficient information to effectively evaluate, let alone deploy, strategies for large-scale climate interventions. (6) Many carbon dioxide removal options are relatively low risk and effective, but they are currently limited by cost and lack of technical maturity, and some may have significant local environmental impacts. Albedo modification shows evidence of being temporarily effective at cooling the planet, but at a currently unknown cost to and impact on the environment. (7) The Academies’ reports recommended investing in the research and development of methods of carbon dioxide removal and disposal at scales that would impact the climate. They also recommended the development and