There is sudden interest in Geo-Engineering for a few reasons. According to the Video with Clive Hamilton its mainly because we have shown that we can’t lower our carbon emissions to the level we need to to stop climate change.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVKINPLa6nk) And the secondary reason is it gives wealthy/powerful polluters a good excuse to keep polluting.
I’d say it’s a techno fix which is a “technical solutions to social problems”(Hamilton Pg. 2). And Geo-engineering fits that definition to a T, as we are trying to come up with technologies to solve a huge social, economic, and cultural problem that will affect the whole planet.
I wouldnt say its a viable option by itself but “My hope is that emissions cuts, solar geoengineering, and carbon removal can work together to reduce the human and environmental effects of climate change beyond what is possible with emissions cuts alone.”(Keith Pg. 1) Maybe my own opinion would remove solar geo-engineering because of the “the environmental risks and uncertainties”(Hamilton Pg. 2), but I do think adding carbon capture and maybe carbon removal to the climate change situation would help in solving the problem a bit faster.