Jerry Schnoor, Allen S. Henry Chair in Engineering, professor of civil and environmental engineering, faculty research engineer at IIHR--Hydroscience & Engineering, and co-director of the UI Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, is participating as a delegate November 30-December 11 in Paris, France, at COP21, Conference of Parties, an annual forum to try to tackle climate on a global political level.

He is involved in discussions about biofuels’ usage and how it can be more efficiently produced and used, among other issues. He also acquired a coveted media credential to report on the climate proceedings for the weekly magazine Chemical & Engineering News, published by the American Chemical Society.

“It is important that we improve the environmental performance of biofuels in Iowa (and everywhere) if they are to be an important part of our transportation fuel mix in the carbon-constrained future,” said Schnoor.

More than 40,000 delegates from 195 countries are attending COP21.

Negotiators at the conference are aiming to finalize a new international agreement on climate change.

The Paris conference comes as a new paradigm is emerging on climate — one in which action is decentralized, driven primarily by national, and even state and provincial, governments rather than by negotiations at the United Nations.  A UN agreement will play a vital role in promoting and coordinating ambitious climate action around the world.

The climate meetings comprise one of the largest gatherings of world leaders, as nations attempt to forge agreement to limit the planet's warming, mostly through individual country’s pledges to reduce fossil-fuel use and emissions of carbon dioxide. After repeated failures, observers are cautiously optimistic that a global greenhouse-gas limiting approach will be agreed upon, in part because many countries have submitted carbon-reduction plans in advance, including many of the world’s leading emitters, such as the United States and China.