A University of Iowa professor who is among the world’s foremost experts in greenhouse gas emissions, and his former PhD student were key figures at COP28, an annual gathering of world leaders focused on climate change. 

The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly known as COP28, was a two-week summit in the United Arab Emirates that concluded on Dec. 12.  

Gregory R. Carmichael, UI’s Karl Kammermeyer Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, participated in several panels and sessions focused on the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch and methane. Earlier this year, Carmichael was tapped to lead the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch, an effort to for the first time standardize world-wide reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Standardization is a challenge due to varying resources and political pressures among nations across the globe. Each month, the gas watch is expected to provide independent, transparent, top-down estimates of greenhouse gas emissions (inferred from observations and models) everywhere on the globe at one degree resolution. This service is expected to be up and running in time to support the next global stock-take, Carmichael said. 

UI College of Engineering alum, Marcelo Mena, a 2007 PhD under Carmichael’s mentorship, was also heavily involved in COP28. Mena is CEO of the Global Methane Hub, a privately funded organization and the first coordinated approach to methane mitigation funding. In 2022, Mena was named one of Business Insider’s 30 top global climate action leaders.  

An overview of COP28 can be found at https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/cop28.